


Birds of a Feather

by JoyLove611



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Wings, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Injury, Body Dysphoria, Body Horror, Feelings Realization, Getting Together, Graphic Description, M/M, Mentioned Mark Lee (NCT), Past Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee, Post-Break Up, Teenage Drama, a cringey amount of drama;;;, almost 2/3 of the fic is drama;;;;;;;;;, can i get a "yo dream" 😔✊, of like the decompsition/deconstruction and growing of wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:26:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 23,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21818131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoyLove611/pseuds/JoyLove611
Summary: It started with Donghyuck. Because Donghyuck wasalwaysstarting something, the little bitch.(or the other '00 liners start sprouting wings shortly after Donghyuck loses his.)
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin
Comments: 16
Kudos: 107





	1. Birds of a Feather

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> plot inspired by [this](https://preyed-llama.tumblr.com/post/162113809495/soul-mate-au-wings) post.  
> read the tags and make sure you're okay with what is mentioned.

It started with Donghyuck. Because Donghyuck was _always_ starting something, the little bitch.

When Mark went on ahead of them to fully jump-start his adult life by entering college, it was nothing short of devastation on Donghyuck's part. They never made an official statement to their social group, but everyone _suspected_ that the two were romantically involved. The sly heart-eyes Donghyuck sent him across the lunch table, the bashful (read: pathetic) attempts at flirting on Mark's part. They really should have just worn a neon billboard flashing _WE ARE DISGUSTINGLY IN LOVE_ every time they were in the same room as one another. 

Anyway, Donghyuck couldn't stand having a long-distant relationship. No matter how much Mark assured him that he would keep in touch every single day and visit for every single holiday, Donghyuck wouldn't have it and broke off their two-year relationship. 

Despite being the one who made the call, Donghyuck often wallowed in his own self-pity.

But nobody could really blame him. Having your wings slowly decompose to their very bone structure couldn't have been a pleasant experience.

"Donghyuck—"

" _Go away!_ "

Renjun breathed in deeply. _He's hurting... Be patient with him..._

"Donghyuck," Renjun repeated sternly. "You haven't left your room in a week. Don't you think it's time you stopped this?"

There was a beat of silence, one that had Renjun halting in his approach toward Donghyuck's bed, where Donghyuck had taken to hide underneath a pile of comforters. Renjun's hesitance proved to be a misjudgment in action, for Donghyuck took advantage of his moment of weakness and chucked a pillow right at him. It slammed into his face and brought him to a stumbled balance right outside the open doorway. It fell to his feet in mild defiance.

Renjun's momentary dumbfoundedness burned away to incredulity. " _Really_ , Hyuck?" he spat while kicking the offensive pillow away. " _That's_ how you're gonna be to a friend trying to help you?"

"I don't want your help!" Donghyuck shouted. His voice was congested from his sorrowful agony and muffled beneath his protective barriers of blankets. "Just leave me alone already!"

Renjun struggled to reign in his inner fury. It would be _so_ easy to just...shove Donghyuck off the bed. To drag him out into the open and force him to move on with his life.

_He's hurting, he's hurting, he's hurting._

Renjun breathed in deeply, sharply, and trespassed further in. "Hyuck, I'm not leaving until you get out of bed," he said. He braced his knees against the hardwood of the bedframe, loomed over Donghyuck's shielded form with teetering patience. "I heard the process is easier if you soak the sprouts in warm water."

"That's a myth that degenerates like to tell themselves to help ease the pain," Donghyuck retorted.

Renjun scoffed and leaned further down, braced his weight with his palms on either side of Donghyuck's curled form. "Wouldn't that make you a degenerate, too?" he teased.

His comment earned him a swift kick to the stomach. Weak though it was, Renjun quickly found his tamed temper roaring back to life.

"Alright, you asked for it."

Renjun grasped at the first of many blankets and tugged it away from Donghyuck's squirming form. He lunged forward, landing directly on top of Donghyuck in the process, and peeled away the multi-layered barrier from one side of the mattress to the other. He gazed at Donghyuck's defenseless form in smug victory, before processing the sight revealed to him.

Renjun figured there would be a smell to the process. The concept of something rotting, decaying away always brought about that pungent scent. So easy to pick out, so note-worthy. A no-brainer when the question of what would happen to someone's wings when they were in such a state was asked.

Instead, not that far from Renjun's expectations, there was just...blood. Bones. Feathers. Lots and lots of feathers. A graphic sight for sure, but it didn't really trigger a knee-jerk reaction inside of Renjun. Because there was no _smell_ in deconstruction.

Such a simple deduction, but such a complex factor to not...factor in.

"Don't look at me like that," Donghyuck muttered from below him. Shame and mortification crawled over his body in a pale flush, hid in his curled joints. But his voice only revealed the obvious emotions with a slight warble, steady and calm throughout.

"Like what?" Renjun said as he made a slow rake of Donghyuck's body with his eyes.

"Like I'm a phenomenon."

Renjun stiffened with withheld indignation but didn't verbalize the denial. Because he was in no position to deny the obvious.

Instead, he slid off the mattress and offered a hand toward a visibly relieved Donghyuck. "C'mon. Let's get you cleaned up."

When they stood in the confines of the bathroom, door locked and secured behind Renjun, Renjun finally took notice of just how much blood was on Donghyuck. Realized that Donghyuck must have been laying in his own filth the entire week for it to cake and build up along his skin so grotesquely.

"Clothes off," Renjun said as he shuffled past Donghyuck's frigid form. He pulled back the shower curtain and twisted the knobs of the water pressure. He held his hand under the showerhead's running water, readjusted the pressure to be but a kiss against his skin, and turned the temperature to high heat. He turned back toward Donghyuck and refused to let his gaze drop when he realized Donghyuck had listened to him for once. "This might sting a little," he warned.

Donghyuck approached with visible trepidation. He stepped over the tub's wall with trembling legs and released a sharp hiss of discomfort when the gentle water hit his tender sprouts.

A few moments passed—in which Donghyuck stood stock-still underneath the water—before Renjun realized he would have to further involve himself with Donghyuck's re-humanization.

"Do you want me to—"

"Yes," Donghyuck interrupted sharply.

Renjun decided to let Donghyuck's curtness pass because it looked like he was doing everything in his power to not sob out in pain.

Renjun removed his shirt and tossed it to the floor. He stepped over the tub's walls and grabbed the bar of soap from the rack above him. He held it under the water for a moment before rubbing the suds between his palms. He placed the soap back onto the rack and turned toward Donghyuck's back.

Renjun's gut twisted at the sight before him.

The growing of wings wasn't a pretty process. But it was the end-result that had everyone raving about it. 

The deconstruction of wings was a tragedy. The end-result left the person feeling much more weighed down after having such a bountiful love on their back.

Donghyuck's back looked like a massacre. The blood that had crusted and stained over time ran freely down his broken skin, painting it a miserable mural of crimson. The sprouts, withering underneath the gentle laps of water, held neither majestic feathers nor healthy muscles to their skeletons. They were sad stubs of what was, marring Donghyuck's delicate skin.

"You're doing it again," Donghyuck whispered. His gaze was steadfast to the tiled wall before him.

Renjun started from his reverie and gently pressed his soap-soaked fingers to Donghyuck's back. "Am not," he rebutted. He watched the blood give way and run under his gentle scrubbing. 

Ridding Donghyuck's body of his own blood was easy. Just not as easy as Renjun would have hoped. Every time Renjun so much as grazed his fingers along Donghyuck's used-to-be scapulars, Donghyuck would flinch and cringe away from his hesitant touches. The rest of the blood-washing process was rather painless, aside from those admittedly frequent instances.

However, Renjun didn't want to be the bearer of bad news, but...

"Hyuck, we need to clear away whatever bones are left." _So that you can fully heal,_ he wanted to say, but Donghyuck would probably never reach that stage of acceptance. He was too damned stubborn.

"Fuck no," Donghyuck said with a strangled sort of laugh. "God, fuck, don't—"

"Donghyuck," Renjun said carefully, slowly. "These don't fall out on their own. They'll keep causing you pain until you remove them with force."

The water rained down upon them as a drizzling white noise. Stilted breaths escaped Donghyuck, and Renjun stood behind him with his eyes trained solely on the chipped sprouts before him. His hands itched to just—rip them out. Tear them out of the exposed flesh of Donghyuck's back. Grind them into dust and flush their remains down the toilet, never to be seen again.

"Okay," Donghyuck finally, blissfully said.

Renjun didn't do any of what he imagined, obviously. He wasn't a sadist.

He brushed his blood-stained fingertips along the bone. Donghyuck choked out a reluctant whimper.

"Do it fast," Donghyuck pleaded.

"That'll hurt more than going slow," Renjun said, pinching one of the bones between his thumb and forefinger, hovering his free hand over the other sprout. "Deep breaths, Hyuck," he encouraged when Donghyuck's breathing went ragged. "C'mon. In." One... Two... Three... Four... "Out." Five... Six... Seven... Eight... "In..." Repeat. "Out..." Repeat. "In." Two... Three... Four—

When Donghyuck's body lost its tension, when his breathing finally matched Renjun's pacing, Renjun pulled both sprouts out in one go.

Renjun knew he had lost Donghyuck's wavering respect and trust the first day back at school. Of course, he had his suspicions during summer break, wherein Renjun was pointedly left out of any and all activities involving Donghyuck. He was still in contact with Jeno and Jaemin, thankfully, so he wasn't entirely out on the loop of Donghyuck's recovery.

Anyway, Donghyuck was ignoring Renjun, and it was kind of pissing him off.

Renjun wanted to approach Donghyuck first and apologize for causing him such a great deal of pain. But Donghyuck, the absolute shit head, was determined to ghost Renjun to the end. Which was an awe-inspiring feat since they shared all but two classes together.

"Hyuck-ah," Renjun said during their first hour. "I didn't get to see you over the summer. How've you been?" Despite being in touch with Jeno and Jaemin, Renjun never dared to ask them how Donghyuck was holding up after being kicked out of the shower.

Renjun's eased approach was brushed off easily; Donghyuck turned to one of his desk-mates and initiated a conversation with him. Which left Renjun standing, hovering there for a few stilted moments, before eventually scoffing and trudging over to his own seat.

That went on for the entire first half of the day. Renjun would attempt to confront Donghyuck about his recovery, and Donghyuck would be steadfast in his ignorance. 

And then, lunch happened. Jeno happened to share the same lunch as Renjun, and Renjun was eager to seize his chance.

"Jeno," Renjun hissed as he slid into the seat next to Jeno's. Jeno jolted and whirled toward Renjun with half a drumstick in his mouth. "I need to talk to you about Donghyuck," Renjun continued when Jeno no longer seemed on the verge of choking on his food.

Jeno downed his carton of milk and leveled Renjun with a grim stare. "He's not too happy with you, you know," he said. "But he never told me what happened, either, so I don't know if you actually did anything wrong."

Renjun sighed and picked at the food on his tray with his chopsticks. "I mean, he has every right to be a _little_ mad at me. But to ignore me for the entire summer and today?" Renjun scoffed and unceremoniously dropped his chopsticks onto his tray. "I don't think that's reasonable."

"And do you plan on telling me what you did, or...?"

Renjun waved Jeno off with a flippant hand. "If Donghyuck doesn't want to say, then that's not my story to share."

Jeno sighed, defeated. "Right, of course."

Silence overcame them. The bustling cafeteria around them drowned out the quiet contemplations of prodding in Renjun's stilted mind. The food he ate as a distraction, as a filler, stuck to the roof of his mouth, sludged its way down his regret-tight throat. Mind like sandpaper, mouth like static, Renjun was at a loss.

"He misses you, I think."

Renjun's startle was minute, the tips of his saliva-warm chopsticks trapped under his trembling tongue. "Yeah?" It came out garbled, strangled. Hopeful and anxious.

Jeno's smile was encouraging, warm. Familiar and dearly missed. "Yeah."

That was all Renjun needed to plan out his next move.

When the bell for the day's release sounded, chaos ensued. Students clambered to escape the classroom, rushed on by equally impatient companions and the swarming bodies already swimming in a crowd down the hall. Renjun watched from his spot near the window as students spilled out in tousled waves, shrill laughs and barking shrieks wafting up and through the slight crack of the panel.

Renjun turned his attention from the turmoil down below and toward the classroom's only other occupant.

Donghyuck sat in his seat at the center of the classroom in complete serenity. Posture straight and prim, face lax and void of palpable tension. A soft downward turn of his natural pout, a long cast of shadows from his tamed lashes. 

Donghyuck was beautiful. Not in a conventional way. Not like Jeno or Jaemin. 

Donghyuck was...gorgeous. In the afternoon sun, after a long first day back in school. In the false sense of security, that he was left to a world solely consisted of him. All soft curves and gentle angles, Lee Donghyuck was beautiful.

Donghyuck, beautiful, gorgeous Donghyuck, was currently looking at Renjun with a scrutinizing glare.

Renjun ignored the itch in his back.

"I'm sorry," Renjun said. His voice was soft, but he held complete sincerity in his tone. He knew it to be true, for Donghyuck's gaze softened into reluctant acceptance. "Not just for hurting you," Renjun continued before Donghyuck could get a word in, "but for not bothering to reach out before today. I just figured that if I gave you your space, you would come to me when you were ready. But by the time I realized that that wasn't gonna work out, three months had already passed, and I—"

"Renjun." 

Renjun clasped his lips. Silently relished in his friend's familiar, sweet voice. Ignored the burn in his back.

Donghyuck's reluctant gaze turned soft and sweet, all mischievous and casual. "You may have fucked up," he said sagely, "but that doesn't mean I'm gonna hate you." He paused, seemed to struggle for a moment to gather his words, his composure; a rising flush invaded the shells of his ears. "I ignored you because...I was embarrassed," he admitted with a mutter. "That you saw me like that, I mean. All sniveling and sobbing and whining like a toddler."

Renjun blinked at the confession. He felt a gentle squeeze of his lungs push the last of his breath past his lips in quiet relief. Felt the beginnings of something truly tragic breach the skin of his back. 

He dug his nails into his palms to deter the pain.

"But isn't that how you always act?" he jested with an easy grin.

Donghyuck barked out a startled laugh, welts of red spreading to his cheeks. "Wow. For how sorry you said you were a few minutes ago, it sure sounds like those three months of silence were nonexistent for you."

Renjun shrugged nonchalantly, played his cards carefully. "I had Jeno and Jaemin to keep me company." He stuck his tongue out ruefully. "You aren't my only friend, Donghyuck." _But you are my favorite._

Donghyuck released a mock gasp of offense, placed his hand along his chest dramatically. "Those traitors! I told them to leave you in the dust!"

"I guess we both know who they're actually loyal to, huh?" Renjun's grin fell into a grim line as he leveled Donghyuck with a contemplative stare. "So, you didn't tell them what happened?"

Donghyuck's form went rigid, his gaze wandering and elusive. "No," he said. "I didn't say anything to them."

Renjun furrowed his brow in confusion. "Why? Wouldn't it be better to tell them that you're recovering now? So that they don't have to needlessly worry about you."

Donghyuck shrugged, and his eyes trained themselves to the hardwood floor tucked between his feet. "It's...kind of hard to admit how quickly you can fall out of love, you know?"

Renjun hummed sympathetically. "But there's no need to feel any shame. I'm sure Mark's recovered by now as well."

Donghyuck's eyes flickered up to meet Renjun's. "You think?"

"Yeah." Renjun smiled, prayed it looked reassuring. "He's a big boy, Donghyuck. You don't need to worry about him anymore."

Donghyuck nodded to himself wordlessly. A few moments passed, the tick-tocking of the classroom's clock and chattering of meandering students filling in the gaps. 

The first tear to drop was just seconds after Donghyuck's not-so-subtle sniffle.

Renjun beckoned him over with a spread of his arms, a quiet "come here." Donghyuck's face melded into his shoulder, his weight balancing atop Renjun's thighs. His arms were loose around Renjun's torso, his hands fidgety and wandering. 

The minutes passed in wordless rubbing, patting, and tear-wiping. The sun their dazzling backdrop, nature singing its wild tune with rustling winds interrupting its natural flow periodically. The school a quiet placeholder in their late-afternoon, student-life far away and stepping in tune to the background.

"Injoonie," Donghyuck said once their shadows along the floor had shifted, once the wind had a bite to its presence.

"Hyuck?" Renjun replied, ceasing his mindless rubbing of Donghyuck's back.

"There's another reason I didn't tell Jeno and Jaemin."

"What is it?"

Donghyuck leaned back so that his puffy, swollen face was exposed and directly in front of Renjun's. The tips of their noses were in bumping-brushing contact, their heaving breaths a by-product of the insignificant connection. Tension held Renjun together, his traitorous gaze daring the path downward on more than one shameful occasion.

Donghyuck's lips parted, and Renjun watched them with unabashed concentration: "Because new sprouts took their place."

Suddenly, inexplicably, Renjun's back felt like it was on fire.

Jeno hadn't been expecting anything from Renjun's solo intervention. Renjun decided to give it one last shot by himself before calling it quits, following suit to Jeno's and Jaemin's early surrender. They, as in Renjun, Jeno, and Jaemin, had been stopping by Donghyuck's house every day for an entire week to try and coax him back into society. 

As expected, there was little they could actually do to make their wish come true. What could a few teenaged boys say to another teenaged boy to make him feel better about his recent heartbreak? His current, ongoing agony of losing his beloved wings? Nothing, obviously. They'd never experienced such all-consuming love before, and they've never gone through pain quite like the decomposition of a body part.

So, imagine Jeno's and Jaemin's surprise when Donghyuck called them up one day, out of the blue, and said that he wanted to hang out again.

"What do you think Renjun did?" Jaemin whispered as they walked over to their meet-up place.

Jeno shrugged and kept up his pace, eager to get out of the humid summer air. "Dunno," he said simply. "Guess we'll find out when we meet up with him and Donghyuck."

As they rounded the corner, dampness gathered in every nook and cranny of their bodies, they spotted Donghyuck's inconspicuous form leaned against the movie theater's wall with his gaze trained to the phone clasped in his hands. Jeno quickened his pace and stood within a hair's breadth of the toes of Donghyuck's sneakers.

"So, you finally decided to show up," Donghyuck said without looking up from his screen. He turned away from Jeno and walked toward the theater's doors. "C'mon, the movie started five minutes ago."

Jeno, mildly perplexed by Donghyuck's aloof behavior, shared a quizzical glance with Jaemin before following after Donghyuck. 

The theater was blessedly cool inside, and Jeno stood in blissed relief for a moment before moving away from the doorway to let Jaemin in. Donghyuck had already purchased their tickets and was walking toward the concession stand. Jeno rushed after him, Jaemin's rapid-paced footsteps falling in behind him.

"You guys want popcorn?" Donghyuck asked, already shelling out a few bills to pay for his bag of candy.

"And some coke," Jeno confirmed.

Donghyuck placed the order and looked toward Jaemin with a raised brow.

"Water's fine," Jaemin said.

Purchases gathered in their arms, theater directed to them, they filed in through the closed door of their assigned theater. Jeno nabbed the popcorn from Donghyuck so that he could shine the trashbin's light onto their tickets, searching for their seat numbers.

"We should be somewhere in the bottom row," Donghyuck said. He turned toward Jeno and took back the popcorn. "Who wants the middle?"

"I'll take it," Jaemin said.

They set off, advertisements and commercials blaring their call through the theater's speakers. Jeno took the lead, Donghyuck having claimed the seat closest to the stairs. He pardoned himself through the few people who sat before their seats and slid-dropped into his chair with an "oof."

"What movie are we watching again?" he heard Jaemin whisper to Donghyuck.

"You'll find out," he heard Donghyuck whisper back.

Elusiveness from Donghyuck always spelled trouble, but Jeno was too engrossed in the commercial of a future animated film and his coke to really put any thought into it.

It wasn't until they were half-way through _Frozen II_ 's ending credits when Jeno realized Renjun never showed up.

That should've been the first sign that something was amiss. But, in actuality, Jeno's realization came all at once, in crashing, crushing waves, when Donghyuck asked him about Renjun a week before school started.

"How is he?" Such a simple question. In the right context, at least. From the right person. 

Donghyuck was never the right person to ask that question.

Jeno thought it odd that Renjun never seemed to show up for their group meet-ups. Thought it odd that Donghyuck never joined them when Jaemin went ahead and already invited Renjun. But he never thought to voice his inquiries of Donghyuck and Renjun's current relationship. He figured that it was just one of those summer bouts high schoolers typically went through.

The wings never made their connection until Jeno caught a peek of Donghyuck's scarred back.

It was the last day of summer break. Jaemin wanted to make a lasting memory all together since they were about to enter their final year of high school. So, they went to the beach. All sopped with boiling humidity and not in the least refreshed by the bath-water warm sea temperature. Such was the price of rolling up in the sand mid-afternoon.

Jeno, skin tight and sticky under a fresh layer of sunscreen, offered to do Donghyuck, as Jaemin had bolted off into the waves with his clothes still on to avoid further responsibility.

"I can just do it myself," Donghyuck said. He snatched the bottle of sunscreen from Jeno's slick hands and squirted a puddle into his open palm. Rubbing, scrubbing the paste-y material across his skin, bleaching his naturally tanned tone.

Jeno watched in a silent reverie, before snapping out of it when Donghyuck abruptly stood from his spot underneath the shade of the umbrella. "Hey, wait," Jeno said, grasping Donghyuck's arm. "You're not seriously going to swim in a shirt, are you?"

Donghyuck paused and looked down at himself, took a brief moment to inspect himself. He brought his gaze up to meet Jeno's and deadpanned, "Idols do it all the time."

Jeno let out a snort. "You're no idol, Hyuck." He tugged on Donghyuck's arm and snatched the bottle of sunscreen out of his hands. "C'mon. Let's do your shoulders, chest, and back. We both know you're gonna be too weighed down by this thing once it gets soaked."

Donghyuck jerked his arm free from Jeno's grasp, a scandalized scowl furrowing his sunscreen streaked brow. "I'm _fine_ , no-jam. It's not like I'm gonna drown out there."

Jeno was still reluctant to let his friend play under the scorching sun for potential hours with little protection. But he eventually conceded with a rueful frown, with a drawn-out, bemoaned, "fine."

Donghyuck grinned and instantly escaped Jeno's clutches. Jeno watched from the shade as Donghyuck ran up to the shoreline to gleefully splash Jaemin, who was waddling through the shallow waves.

After taking a moment to secure their meager belongings near the base of their umbrella, Jeno quickly joined them in their childish play. He jumped in right when a wave was crashing into the sand, drenching his carefully styled hair and matting it to his blurred vision.

He pushed his bangs back just to receive a sharp splash of saltwater directly to the face.

"A little warning next time?" Jeno shouted into the open air as he pinched at his stinging eyes.

"You were wide open, no-jam!" Jaemin's disembodied voice replied.

When his eyes were able to see past the glaring sunlight reflected into them, Jeno searched his surroundings in preparation for another attack. His gaze landed on a struggling Donghyuck, who lay victim to Jaemin's vicious assault of paddled splashes. Donghyuck's voice rang out like bells, shrill and clear. Delighted and mischievous despite being on the receiving end of the prank.

Jeno couldn't help but feel a little indignant that Donghyuck's shirt left little to the imagination.

The simple white tee was soaked through and translucent, exposing the long stripes of Donghyuck's torso. Flowing and sticking close in the heated combat, the shirt was a warning of future burns.

Jeno sighed and made a brief motion to go and fetch the sunscreen to forcibly apply it to Donghyuck's endangered skin. But he stopped short when Jaemin tugged and twisted Donghyuck around so that his back was facing Jeno. They clambered against and around each other, Jaemin eventually using Donghyuck's stubbornness against him and tugging the back of his shirt over his head. But Jeno paid their brawl no mind. Eyes steadfast to the startling sight before him.

Donghyuck's old sprouts were gone, the skin where they once were a fresh red of apparent recovery, and new, underdeveloped sprouts took their place.

Suddenly, the reason behind Renjun's absence was made abundantly clear.

When the sun bid its farewell beyond the horizon, spilling violets and fire across the sky, Jeno heard Jaemin call quits to his own trip. It wasn't like Jeno was complaining, the grains of sand lining his gums driving him to near-insanity by that point. 

"Wait, hold on," Donghyuck said. "Jaemin, you brought your camera, right?"

Jaemin nodded and slung his backpack around and riffled through the pockets. His hand emerged with a high-end digital camera, the strap flapping restlessly in the sea-breeze. "Are you finally willing to take that cheesy group photo?" Jaemin teased with a wide grin overtaking his tanned face.

Donghyuck shrugged nonchalantly, lips tugged down in a contemplative pout. But his eyes glimmered in the sunset with wild mischief. "Maybe," he said as he took the offered camera from Jaemin's hand. "Maybe not." He raised the camera at a high angle, lens pointed toward himself, and snapped a selfie with an easy-going peace sign.

"I'm not processing that for you," Jaemin said.

Donghyuck gasped, scandalized. "You don't want to print out my handsome face and put it up on your bedroom wall to see every single night before you go to bed and every single morning when you wake up?"

"That would be easier to do if it were on the ceiling," Jeno said.

Donghyuck turned toward Jeno with an unimpressed frown. "Sounds an awful lot like you're volunteering yourself, no-jam."

Jeno conceded with a mock surrender of his hands.

They did, eventually, take a cheesy commemorative photo with the sunset and the sea as their background. Jaemin promised Jeno and Donghyuck that he would print it out and give them both a copy after school tomorrow. Donghyuck seemed pleased and was more than ready to escape the evening chill that struck through his soaked clothes. Jeno had "I told you so" on the tip of his tongue, but with the newfound knowledge of Donghyuck's traumatized skin seeped into his mind, he decided to keep his silence.

They bid each other farewell and went their separate ways for the evening, tomorrow's events weighing heavy on their sun-soaked minds.

Jeno didn't feel any guilt about leaving Renjun out until his friend sat next to him during lunch. Seeing Renjun after so long—their last get-together with Jaemin was roughly two weeks ago—had regret and shame welling up in his chest. The knowledge that Renjun had been potentially ghosted by his closest friends twisted and churned his gut. 

But he played it off and attempted to advise Renjun into rekindling his relationship with Donghyuck. He figured that if they got back on track with one another, then everything would go back to what it used to be between them, and they could spend their last year in high school together in absolute peace.

So, imagine Jeno's dismay when Renjun and Donghyuck approached him and Jaemin with sets of wings perched atop their backs.

It wasn't to say that Jeno was disturbed or anything. He couldn't say he was disappointed either since Renjun's and Donghyuck's relationship had improved beyond Jeno's expectations. Perhaps he was...discomfited? With the rapid development of zero to one hundred. 

Or maybe he just didn't like the idea of his closest friends dating each other. 

But there was such a glaring nuance in that theory, in that half-assed explanation of his: Mark and Donghyuck's relationship was precisely like that. Long-time friends, back when they were all younger and dumber than they could ever hope to be in the future. And then, suddenly, out of the blue, romance bloomed and settled between them. Blossomed on their backs with the agonizing shifting of bone and muscle, the breaking and tearing of skin. The spilling of blood, the thickest of bonds binding them together with majestic wings of feathers.

So what was different with Renjun? What about Renjun made Jeno want to hurl when he saw those navy feathers with diamonds of white?

"Congrats," Jaemin said, breaking through the stunned silence between him and Jeno. 

A pleased flush settled on Renjun's cheeks, and Jeno wanted to phase into the cement sidewalk they stood upon. "Thanks," he said, all modest and timid. "I didn't realize how quickly the process went when your feelings were requited."

"The beauty of love," Jaemin said sagely.

"I wish it wasn't such a pain in the ass to deal with, though," Donghyuck bemoaned. "I just bought new clothes, and now I have to manually cut holes in the back of all of my shirts!"

Renjun laughed, thoroughly pleased and throaty, something Jeno desperately wished he heard more often during the break. "How do you think _I_ feel?" Renjun jested. "I have to wing-proof my entire room so that my molting doesn't muck the place up."

"Well, I can just help you out with that," Donghyuck said. "Since I _am_ the wing expert in our group and all."

"We've done enough research during your Mark breakdown to know how to do that much, Hyuck," Renjun deadpanned.

"Reading about something and actually experiencing it are two completely different things!"

"Oh, and I'm guessing you found that out during your first rodeo?"

"Careful, Renjun. If you bully me any more, I just might shed a few feathers."

Jeno turned away from Renjun's and Donghyuck's jestful bout to share a long-suffering look with Jaemin.

Jaemin turned away first and approached the bickering couple with a clap of his hands. "While your healthy and valid argument with one another is nice and all, I would much rather do this outside of the heat." 

Renjun and Donghyuck locked eyes with one another.

"My place or yours?" Renjun asked.

Donghyuck sighed and stretched his arms above his head. "My mom's probably worried about us, so my place."

And so, they set off at a steady pace down the sidewalk toward Donghyuck's home. Renjun and Donghyuck walked side-by-side, bumping shoulders and brushing the tips of their wings together. Jeno trudged alongside Jaemin, an ugly seed of emotion swelling, churning within his stomach.

Jeno didn't get a good look at Renjun's back during their walk, too engrossed in his own turmoil to notice such glaring details. But when they stood at the front door of Donghyuck's home, Jeno took notice of the tattered material of Renjun's uniform shirt. Observed the few splatterings of blood painting the inside of the bleached shirt. Inspected the raw skin peeking out from underneath their curtain of navy.

The sight was disturbing, but not in the gut-wrenching, grossed-out kind of way. More like _his-friend-went-through-a-life-changing-process-a-matter-of-minutes-ago_ kind of way. Plus a little voice in his head pointing out _And I wasn't there to witness it_. 

It wasn't until Jeno was scuffing his shoes off and sliding into a spare pair of slippers when he realized he shouldn't be feeling excluded. It was such a private process—falling in love. Why should he be involved? He wasn't nearly as bothered when Mark and Donghyuck snuck around. So, the question begged itself, yet again: what about Renjun ticked him off?

Jeno scowled and inspected Renjun from the corner of the couch, watched as he went about his fresh-eyed, awed investigation of his newly-grown wings. Gentle and wary, yet intrigued and eager. Much like how Donghyuck had first reacted with his own pair.

Speaking of Donghyuck...

Jeno's gaze flitted toward the kitchen, which Donghyuck was rummaging through in search of snacks. Jeno watched as Donghyuck occasionally paused to look over his shoulders and smile fondly at the smooth feathers that peered back at him. As Donghyuck reached behind his back with wild urgency, only to relax and become placid while stroking his wings.

There was a moment of hushed silence between their group. Mundane tasks and enrapturing sights stealing away their usually smooth flow of conversation.

Jaemin nudged Jeno with his elbow. Jeno turned toward him, startled and put-out by the sudden intrusion. "I think Hyuck's looking for that bubble tea we saved from last week," Jaemin said. "But, I drank it all after crashing here last night." He nodded his head toward the door. "Wanna buy some more with me?"

Jeno frowned. "Why should I help cover you?"

Jaemin grinned and rested his head atop Jeno's shoulder, batting his eyelashes coyly. "Because we both know you can't stand to be around these two right now."

Jeno couldn't deny the obvious. 

So, not bothering to be subtle about it, Jeno excused himself from the living room and made his exit through the front door. He heard Jaemin following behind him with close comfort and was quick to fall in step with him once they were trudging out onto the sidewalk.

"Was I that obvious?" Jeno asked.

Jaemin snorted and knocked his shoulder into Jeno's. "Don't worry," he said with a smile. "I doubt they noticed. They were too busy fawning over their wings—"

"And each other," Jeno muttered.

"To pay much attention to us," Jaemin continued. "And chin up, no-jam. They'll get over this star-crossed-lovers act of theirs soon enough, and will probably be back at each other's throats within a week."

Jeno raised a brow. "That soon?"

Jaemin shrugged and held the store's door open for Jeno to pass through. "The honeymoon phase is a short one."

Jeno prayed that Jaemin's words held at least a sliver of truth to them. He wouldn't know what to do with himself if Renjun and Donghyuck continued to act as though they were the only two in the room while talking. 

Jaemin pulled ahead of him, wallet in hand, and gazed up at the menu. "Same thing as last time?" he asked.

"Nah, that stuff was too sweet." Jeno approached Jaemin's side and inspected the menu's contents. "I'll try the _Winter Melon_ one," he said after a moment.

"Two _Winter Melon_ s, one _Coffee Milk_ , and one _Strawberry Milk Green Tea_ ," Jaemin informed the cashier. He turned back toward Jeno once the price was paid, a frown tugging on his lips. "Do you know _why_ you feel so bothered by Donghyuck and Renjun's relationship?" he asked, all concerned and sympathetic.

Jeno startled and felt a guilty flush pool into his cheeks. "No," he answered with a mumble. "And that's the problem. Because I didn't have an issue with Mark and Donghyuck being together, but something about Renjun just...makes me uncomfortable."

Jeno met Jaemin's gaze. Jaemin scrutinized him for a moment, eyes jumping across the flustered features of his face, before his stern edges smoothed over with an empathetic smile. "I see," was all he had to say.

Teas secured in a drink carrier and grasped between Jeno's palms and his chest, they left the store in a stilted sort of silence. 

They didn't talk. They didn't look at one another. There was no opening to initiate a conversation; to exchange a look of understanding between one another.

When they stood outside the door of Donghyuck's home, Jeno's arm straining against the prolonged weight of the tea, Jaemin paused in his entering. Jeno released a curious noise, peering around Jaemin's form to see what the hold-up was. Maybe Donghyuck had locked them out as a prank? It wouldn't be the first time.

"Jeno," Jaemin spoke, startling Jeno back into his original posture of impatient waiting. 

"Jaemin?" he ventured when Jaemin ceased to continue.

Jaemin turned around toward him slowly, carefully, and fixed him with a gentle smile. "If Donghyuck and Renjun really start to get to you," he said patiently, "just know you've got me by your side."

Jeno stared at him for a moment before snorting and conceding with a nod of his head. "Well, thank God for that."

Jaemin didn't look entirely pleased by his flippant response: a pinch of skin between his brows, his smile deflating into a grim line. But Jaemin didn't push any further and finally opened the door. "We brought tea!" he shouted as he entered, slide-shuffling back into his pair of slippers.

There was another shout in reply, probably from Donghyuck, for he suddenly appeared and tackled Jaemin down to the ground. He bemoaned of being robbed and whined about the injustice of stealing another person's snacks from their own home.

Jeno avoided the confrontation and shuffled into the living room, where Renjun was still hiding away. He no longer sat in a silent marvel of his own wings and, instead, fixed Jeno with a bemused grin. 

"You don't look too happy," Renjun said, standing from the couch and approaching Jeno.

Jeno felt his frown deepen upon Renjun's comment. "Just trying to figure out what to do with you and Hyuck," he replied eventually. 

Renjun laughed, startled and obviously off-kilter. "What?"

Jeno shrugged. "I dunno, honestly. I'm still working it out in my head." He motioned the tea-filled carrier toward Renjun. "Want one? I've got dibs on a _Winter Melon_."

Renjun paused and fixed Jeno with a scrutinizing glare, something Jeno was becoming uncomfortably familiar with. He eventually shook his head in apparent disapproval and tugged the other _Winter Melon_ free from the carrier. "I didn't take you for the sort of guy that would be uncomfortable with your friends dating each other," he said, straw balanced upon his lips.

Jeno bristled at the accusation. "I'm not," he muttered. "I mean, I didn't think I was. Donghyuck and Mark being a thing didn't bother me, so I don't get why you and Donghyuck getting together is such a problem for me."

Renjun placed the straw between his lips, sipped up his tea in silent contemplation. "You got a problem with me?" he asked around the straw.

Jeno paused and stared at Renjun incredulously. He parted his lips, ready to deny the obvious quip, to derail that path of mischief carved within Renjun's glimmering eyes. But he stopped short. And realized that he didn't inherently have a problem with Renjun. He didn't have any issues with Renjun or Donghyuck. The dilemma laid within their relationship with one another. 

Because, as Jeno stared at the symbol of the enigma—at Renjun's fluttering wings of navy, he realized that his own sprouts had long since taken root underneath his skin.

Jaemin was an affectionate guy. He loved loving and being loved. It was such a self-fulfilling wish, and greed often made it complicated. That simple little need to touch, to feel, to hold everything dear near grew and blossomed into something...complex.

They weren't separate organisms. Jaemin knew that they were as much a part of him as any other limb on his body. All bone and muscle. A lot of feathers. No big deal. Just another part of his body. Another structure to groom and take care of.

The issue with having three pairs of wings on your back: there was never enough room.

Feathers bent and crushed under the weight of an entirely different bone structure. Cramps were normalized within a matter of minutes, and stiffness was an undefeatable foe. The skin of the back never saw the light of day. Never. 

But Jaemin was an affectionate guy. 

So, three wing binders were the first thing to go on in the morning and the last to be removed in the dead of night. Because who had ever heard of a love so consuming it took up someone's entire back?

If he were to be technical, Jaemin first fell in love with Jeno back in middle school. His sprouting back then had been excruciating and so severe he had to take a leave of absence from school for the rest of the week. Of course, when he got back, Jaemin said that his back had been acting up again. Such an easy excuse that distant classmates had been relieved of and closer friends had been sympathetic about.

When his wings outgrew his uniform's jacket, he decided to order in a wing binder. Something that health advisors often warned against using. But Jaemin was desperate to keep his filthy little secret on lockdown because Jeno had been recently making eyes at the new transfer student, Renjun, and he really didn't want to open that can of teenage drama.

Jaemin was an affectionate guy. So, when Renjun eventually permanently joined their little social duo, new sprouts tore a hole in Jaemin's back. 

Jaemin hated his wings for a long, long time afterward. He saw them as ugly, obnoxious reminders for his ugly, obnoxious love. He tried on multiple occasions to tear them out but lost the will, the drive soon after. Simply pulling out a feather was agonizing in every sense of the way. How excruciating would it be to tear bone from muscle? To dig into his own skin to rid himself of the accursed sprouts rooted into his back?

It was when Donghyuck made his return from Jeju that Jaemin realized falling in love with his friends wasn't so bad. Because, see, Donghyuck was also an affectionate guy. So Jaemin indulged in himself and took whatever caress, mindless petting, patting, and wonderfully long hug he could get. 

His self-loathing crept back in when Mark entered the picture. But he would never forgive himself if he let the love he felt for Donghyuck suffer like Renjun's and Jeno's had. So he ordered the final wing binder and ignored the odd deformities in his joints, brushed off the blotches of white in his midnight wings. 

With his extensive knowledge of heartbreak and unrequited love, Jaemin could tell precisely what Jeno was going through. And even if he didn't have such a tragic love life, he would have still figured out why Jeno was so anal about the whole ordeal. Jeno was probably the easiest for Jaemin to read since they'd been together longer than anybody else in their friend group.

The downside of being able to read your friend like an open book: you found out things you would have rather been ignorant about.

Case in point:

Jaemin was wrestling Donghyuck off of him, cackling and squirming underneath Donghyuck's insistent prodding and probing, and happened to catch sight of Jeno's stilted figure. 

Standing from the ground, giving Donghyuck one last playful push, Jaemin made to approach Jeno. Maybe to lift the unpleasant atmosphere that had fallen over him and Renjun in the few short moments they'd been talking to one another. Perhaps to just slide in to grab his and Donghyuck's drink to leave them to work out their apparent misunderstanding.

None of the above happened, of course, because Jaemin came to a screeching halt when he noticed the minute, unmistakable silhouettes of sprouts taking shape underneath Jeno's shirt. 

Jaemin made brief eye contact with Renjun. He released a silent breath of relief when he recognized the ignorant gleam held within Renjun's eyes. Jaemin approached Jeno from behind, throwing an arm around his shoulders, and smiled at the bemused, wide-eyed expression sent his way.

"Hey, Jeno," he said pleasantly. "I've gotta talk to you real quick."

Jeno's eyes made a quick flicker toward Renjun, tongue making its brief appearance to wet his lips, before meeting Jaemin's gaze once again. "Okay," he said. He nodded. Short and curt. Painfully awkward. 

Jaemin squeezed Jeno's shoulder and snatched the tea carrier from his grasp. He held it out toward an eerily quiet Renjun. "The _Coffee Milk_ is for me," he said as he dropped the carrier into Renjun's open palm. "Don't let Donghyuck's puppy eyes win you over again."

Renjun scowled, but his admittance for his own weakness appeared in a pleasant flush. "Just go tell your dirty little secret to your bestie already."

Jaemin laughed, delighted, and wandered further into Donghyuck's home with Jeno in tow. He veered off into the hallway's guest bathroom and locked the door behind himself. He turned toward Jeno, who stared at him with reluctant gratitude.

"Shirt off," Jaemin barked, harsher than he had intended with the adrenaline running high in his blood. Taking in a deep breath, forcing his heart back into a steady beat, he repeated, softly, "Please take your shirt off."

Jeno shuffled atop the bathroom's mat, a shameful flush filling in the earlier starch, panic-stricken skin of his face. "This doesn't concern you, you know," he muttered pitifully. His fingers inched along the hem of his shirt, as though his body was going directly against his words.

Jaemin snorted, unamused. "The well-being of one of my friends is always within my concern." _And I don't want you to suffer like me._

Jeno, seemingly losing his defiant will, tugged his shirt over his head. He dropped it to the tiled floor beside him and crossed his arms across his chest, his earlier flush seeping into his collarbone.

Jaemin took that moment to selfishly drink in the rare sight before him before continuing on. "Turn around." 

Jeno stiffened and shuffled his feet in place. "C'mon, Jaemin..."

Jaemin squared his jaw and puffed up his chest, fixing Jeno with a stern stare. "Jeno, turn around."

Jeno complied, his shoulders hunched and gaze steadfast to the floor.

The sprouts were just beginning their breach of Jeno's skin. Blood welled up around the area of intrusion, skin raw and irritated. The bones already sported a healthy formation of muscle. Not enough to cover the marrow, unfortunately. Jaemin knew from experience that the exposed bone would lead to future infections if not covered and treated fast enough.

Jaemin breathed a sigh of relief. "Alright," he said, averting his gaze from Jeno and toward the bathroom's cabinet. "It looks like we can just cover and bind it with some bandages." He riffled through the medicine cabinet's content before eventually stumbling upon a bottle of rubbing alcohol.

Bottle in hand, a fresh roll of toilet paper in the other, Jaemin faced Jeno. Jeno looked at the objects in his hands with mild disdain and wild wariness. "We need to disinfect the exposed areas," Jaemin explained calmly, slowly. "Your wings won't be fully formed unless you spend more time with Renjun, and I imagine that'll take a while for you to actually do, so it's better to do this early on in their development."

Jeno's flush worsened upon Jaemin's public acknowledgment whom his feelings were blossoming for. "You say that like I'll just ignore him after this," he said as he approached Jaemin.

Jaemin poured a few drops of alcohol onto a torn piece of toilet paper. "Well, you have a few options, actually." His hand hovered over the raw flesh before him. He watched it waver and tremble under the whim of his pounding anxiety, spiking and flowing hot and steady throughout his body for his future endeavors. 

"One," he started, pressing the alcoholic wad of paper against Jeno's tattered skin, listening to the whimpered groan that escaped Jeno. "You can hang around Renjun and wait for your wings to finish growing, fully exposing your feelings for him." 

Jaemin dropped the used piece of toilet paper into the opened bowl of the toilet. He prepared a fresh one and dabbed it down the trembling row of exposed flesh. "Two," Jaemin continued. "You can hide them until you feel ready to deal with them—both your feelings and the wings themselves."

"Those don't sound too appealing," Jeno said with a wavering voice.

"There is the final option," Jaemin said, pulling away from Jeno's back when the skin no longer sported its unsightly welting of blood. 

"Yeah? And what's that?"

"I can pull the sprouts out. Right here, right now."

Jaemin watched the muscles in Jeno's back go taut. Clenching, trembling under the weight of his words.

There was a moment, a lapse in time, where neither one of them spoke. Barely moved. Didn't dare to breathe too sharply, to make the other aware of his expectant reply.

Jeno moved first. A slow turnaround of his body toward Jaemin. He locked eyes with Jaemin, and sternly shook his head. "No," he said. "I'll...I'll keep them."

Jaemin sent Jeno a smile, fondness welling up within his chest. He could so profoundly relate to Jeno's choice to harbor his feelings of love on his back despite the tragedy they would bring.

"And do you plan on telling Renjun?" Jaemin asked, his heart thudding rapidly against his chest. 

Jeno faltered and averted his gaze toward the floor. "I'm...not sure," he answered.

Jaemin hummed sympathetically. "That's okay. You don't need to rush something like this." He turned back toward the sink's cabinet and grabbed a roll of bandage wraps. He eyed Jeno and sent him a sheepish smile. "We still need to cover them, though," Jaemin said. "Even if you do plan on letting them grow, it would be best to stunt the growth to give you some time to work your emotions out."

Jeno grimaced. "Doesn't that mess up the formation of your wings, though?"

Jaemin approached Jeno and motioned for him to turn back around. "Not necessarily," he said once Jeno complied. "If you cover them twenty-four hours a day, then, yeah. The bone structure will be compact and will cause the wings to be completely immobile." He stretched a segment of the roll out and applied the end of it to the center of Jeno's shoulder blades—between his sprouts. "But if you only cover them during school hours and take off the bindings once you get home..." He reached around Jeno and traced the bandage across his chest before reeling back, and snipping and connecting the two ends together. "...then you wouldn't be hindering the growth of your wings."

Jaemin finished assuring the security of the bandage and creased the loose edges to the surface of Jeno's goosepimpled skin. He stepped back and admired his work for a moment before dragging his gaze up to the back of Jeno's head.

Seconds tick-tocked between them, just as terse and stilted as before they reached a sound conclusion with one another.

Jaemin was just making another round of observing Jeno's bare, trembling body when Jeno suddenly whirled toward him. Jaemin jolted to attention and met Jeno's elusive stare. 

"You good?" Jaemin asked when Jeno had yet to say or do anything.

"How long have you known?" Jeno blurted, a rapid spread of rose spilling into his skin.

Jaemin blinked, stupefied. "Known what?"

"That I...loved Renjun."

Jaemin felt his lips twitch up into an automatic wry grin. "Well, I don't know when your obvious attraction turned into love, no-jam." 

Jeno sputtered and his flush darkened. 

"But," Jaemin continued, ignoring the flustered gaze set upon him, "I do know that your sights have been set on him since he transferred into our class."

Admitting it out loud was a punch to the gut for sure. But Jaemin didn't have the heart to be mean-spirited about it. He learned long ago that petty jealousy would get him nowhere. Especially when such emotions greatly affected the health and condition of his wings. If one pair went down, the others would quickly follow suit, and Jaemin's life would become an even greater hell than it already was.

So, Jaemin clamped a lid down onto that boiling feeling of indignation, of tragic sorrow, and concentrated on the wide-eyed stare Jeno fixed him with.

"You knew I liked Renjun," Jeno said, eyes still comedically wide, "even before I did?"

Jaemin laughed and leaned his weight against the sink's counter. "Wow, you're obvious _and_ oblivious."

Jeno huffed and crossed his arms across his chest indignantly. "Well, it's just my luck I figured out my own feelings right when Renjun became unavailable."

Jaemin tutted and waggled his finger disapprovingly. "Oh, Jeno. Have you never heard of the miraculous thing called a polyamorous relationship?"

Jeno scoffed and scowled. "I doubt Donghyuck and Renjun would accept that."

Jaemin's lips fell into a grim line. He knew that the probability of the three of them ending up in a romantic relationship together would be slim. A happy ending for Jeno and Jaemin wasn't possible in their current predicament. Donghyuck's trauma from losing his earlier pair of wings was too fresh and daunting, something that he would only allow Renjun to help him heal from; Renjun's star-eyed, rose-tinted gaze on the whole ordeal wouldn't be able to handle the implications of making another one of his friends suffer through a sprouting because of him; Jeno was still too shaken by the realization of his true feelings.

And Jaemin? 

Well, Jaemin was a patient guy. He could handle waiting however long was necessary for his friends to reach a sound conclusion with one another.

Jaemin rightened his posture and made his way to the door, offering Jeno a comforting pat on his shoulder as he passed him. "C'mon. Let's go drink some tea."

Donghyuck could distinctly, vividly remember the experience of falling out of love with Mark.

It wasn't gradual, not in the least. It happened at the exact moment as Mark's announcement of going abroad for college. That realization, that instant clarity of his own self-importance in Mark's life hitting him like a bullet. 

Question: Was Donghyuck selfish enough to fall out of love with Mark just because he wasn't more important than Mark's strive for education?

Answer: Absolutely.

Death consumed his back, cracked his shoulder blades apart. Broke his skin apart, bled it dry, caked it in his own filth. 

His entire body was on fire. He thought it cruel that the process didn't numb the pain outside of his back but instead spread it to the very tips of his toes, to the roots of his hair. Blistering pain ripping, tearing bone and muscle apart until there lay nothing but the heart of the problem: the sprouts.

The feathers overextended their stay. Sticking to his blood-drenched skin and sheets with a vile resolve. 

The sprouts? They were cavities in his back. Throbbing, aching if he so much as breathed. 

He knew what he needed to do to stop the pain. But wallowing in his own self-pity was so much less traumatizing than ripping out his own bones.

Renjun was godsent.

That was what Donghyuck finally realized hours after kicking, screaming Renjun out of his house. Because while Jeno and Jaemin had ceased their needless, awkward comfort and prodding, Renjun had forced his way into Donghyuck's recovery. He sped it along at a natural pace, not once allowing it to become a stalemate of emotion. 

Donghyuck hadn't learned his lesson in heartbreak, apparently. Because the morning after Renjun's visit found Donghyuck with a new pair of budding sprouts on his back.

He smiled at his reflection, wry and cruel. "Fuck you."

Mission: Avoid Renjun at all Costs.

Status: Failed.

The searing pain that came with the sprouting was all at once, not drawn out and gradual like it was for Mark's. Because after harboring feelings of love for the person he'd been avoiding for three entire months, Donghyuck's body had propelled through the process at back-breaking speeds.

Skin breached and torn open by rapidly forming bones, blood running high and fast through molding muscles, feathers cracking through newly developed flesh.

All in a matter of seconds.

But Renjun was there, holding him close, experiencing the exact same pain, and Donghyuck felt the agony ebb away.

Love bound them together. Wings set them free.

Friends? They were support. Back-up. Something to fall back on if everything came crashing down.

Jeno and Jaemin? 

Donghyuck paused in his annihilation of Renjun in _Mario Kart_ to ponder.

Jeno and Jaemin...

They were friends. Yes, Donghyuck could safely say Jeno and Jaemin were his nearest and dearest friends. 

But...was that it? 

Renjun's victorious shout from beside him startled Donghyuck from his thoughts. "You just got blue-shelled, baby!"

Donghyuck focused on the TV in front of him and scowled at the obnoxiously large _YOU LOSE_ that bounced and trembled on his side of the screen. "I thought we agreed to not use that cheat item," he said with a hint of betrayal in his voice.

"Yeah, but you were spaced out," Renjun said. "So, I took my chance and got out of last place in the process."

"I don't wanna play with you anymore." Donghyuck pouted. He turned toward the kitchen and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Nana!" he shouted.

"What!" Jaemin shouted back, whirling around from his place in front of the microwave.

"Come play with me!"

"You're already playing with Renjun!"

"Donghyuck's a sore loser!" Renjun joined, a wide grin overcoming his face.

Donghyuck scrunched his face up and stuck his tongue out. "And _you're_ cheating!"

"It's not cheating if it's part of the game!"

"You're breaking the promise we made!"

"Oh, my _God_!" Jeno's voice shouted from down the hall. His thundering footsteps followed quickly after, and he emerged from the archway with a deep furrow between his brows. "How am I supposed to _think_ with all this shouting?!"

"Jeno," Donghyuck whined, flopping onto the couch's armrest to meet Jeno's scrutinizing gaze. "Stop thinking for once and come play _Mario Kart_ with me."

Jeno faltered, body tensing and easing back into normalcy within seconds. But Donghyuck knew he had caught him off-guard, and he grinned at the wandering gaze Jeno held.

" _Please_ ," Donghyuck whined, drawing his voice out long and high. 

"Jeno has homework to do, Hyuck," Jaemin scolded. He smacked Donghyuck's ass and wriggled into the narrow space Donghyuck made for him. "Leave him alone."

Donghyuck scoffed and draped himself along Jaemin's lap, consequently becoming the table surface for Jaemin's bowl of popcorn. He parted his lips, drawing out a long _ah_ as he coaxed Jaemin into placing a handful of kernels into his gaping mouth. "What are you, his mom?" he quipped around the popcorn.

Jaemin smiled pleasantly down at Donghyuck before pinching his cheek and cooing at him. "I'm his guardian angel, silly," he said over Donghyuck's protests.

Donghyuck smacked away Jaemin's intrusive hand and rubbed his throbbing cheek. "Guardian angels need wings, silly," Donghyuck mocked.

Jaemin's smile grew wider. "But I _do_ have wings, silly."

Donghyuck laughed and heaved himself off of Jaemin's lap. "Coulda fooled me." He grabbed his controller from where he had tossed it in frustration, facing the TV determinedly. "Alright, Renjun. I'm giving you one last chance to prove to me you're not a cheater."

Renjun, who'd been lounging on the other side of the couch with a dull expression, instantly readied himself with a brilliant smile on his face. "You know I would never dream of it, babe."

They spent the rest of their afternoon like that. Huddled against one another on the couch, shouting vulgarities at each other and their characters' on-screen. Jeno eventually joined them, hooking his body over the back of the couch and hovering with close comfort. Commenting here and there, but never joining in on a round, claims of having to get back to his homework parting his lips whenever egged on. 

The day was initially meant to be a date between Donghyuck and Renjun. But after spending a mere ten seconds in the autumn cold, they both decided to spend the day crashing Jeno's solitary study session.

Oddly enough, Jaemin was already there. For moral support, he offered as explanation. Donghyuck didn't bother questioning it, well aware of how Jeno and Jaemin were often attached at the hip. Always a duo, never in solitude.

Donghyuck blinked. Processed Jaemin's earlier words, foolishly thought to be a quip: _But I_ do _have wings, silly._

"Holy shit," he blurted, startling Jaemin and Renjun, who were in the middle of an intense match against one another.

"Did you finally realize you just wasted three hours of your life playing this game?" Jeno drawled from his spot atop the couch's back.

"Fuck, it's been three hours already?" Renjun bemoaned, still playing despite his outcry.

"Holy shit, Jaemin," Donghyuck said urgently, ignoring the complaints of his friends. "Jaemin, do you _actually_ have wings?"

Jaemin released a nervous titter, a vibrant flush sweating in his cheeks. "N-o?" he drew out, eyes steadfast to the screen. Despite his supposed concentration, his character dropped from third to last place.

Donghyuck gasped, scandalized. "And you never thought to tell _me_? Your second best friend?"

"Guys, can you not have a startling revelation right now?" Renjun ground out. "I'm _this_ close to getting first place."

"Shut up, Renjun, you're in fifth." Donghyuck whirled around toward Jeno with a suspicious glare. "Did _you_ know about this?"

Jeno hastily held his hands up in mock surrender. "I swear I had no idea." He turned his gaze sharply toward the back of Jaemin's head. "You have _wings_? And you didn't tell me?"

Jaemin tossed his controller to the ground, causing Yoshi to veer off into a pit of lava and promptly lose the race, and shouted out in frustration, "It's not that big of a deal!" 

"One of my friends falling in love is totally a big deal," Donghyuck rebutted. "Who is it? Is it that girl who gave you her coffee that one time?"

"No!" Jaemin denied, flush darkening and spreading to his neck. "What does it matter who I'm in love with? Obviously, they don't feel the same, or my wings would've sprouted by now!"

"You know that wings can sprout even when the love is unrequited," Jeno said coolly. "So, it's obvious you're avoiding them to keep your wings from sprouting."

"Sounds familiar," Renjun muttered.

"Let's not talk about that," Donghyuck said. "Anyways, Jaemin, how long have you been in love with this person?"

Jaemin stood from the couch. "I'm going home."

Donghyuck startled at the sudden finality in Jaemin's tone and simmered down from his pompous persona. He watched Jaemin cross the living room, slip on his sneakers, and shut the front door behind himself in stony silence.

"I never thought the day would come," Renjun said in the aftermath, small and unsure. "But did you just piss Jaemin off?"

Donghyuck, dry-mouthed and stunned, couldn't help but believe that was precisely what happened.

Flying always helped to clear Donghyuck's mind. There was just something about being up in the vast, empty sky high above the city's skyscrapers and away from the lives of millions. Something that eased the tension from his body, that allowed him that breath he'd lost in the turmoil of life.

Currently, Donghyuck couldn't stand to be anywhere but grounded to reality.

Strolling along a nearby park cozied against the Han River, Donghyuck wondered what it would be like to not be able to share his troubles and woes. He wasn't overly vocal about what was bothering him. But if things became a tad too overwhelming, a tad too devastating, Donghyuck wouldn't hesitate to confide in the comfort of his friends.

So, Jaemin, the guy who would cry wolf if he felt the slightest amount of injustice toward him, avoiding them over the topic of love was extremely concerning.

"Maybe he really is..." Donghyuck muttered. _In love with Jeno._

Donghyuck paused mid-step and gazed out over the river's surface, rippling in the fierce autumn wind. 

Donghyuck got it. Jeno was handsome, friendly, and funny in an effortless kind of way. The perfect package. But there wasn't much that could be done if Jaemin was too afraid of rejection to confess to Jeno. 

But then again, there was the possibility of Jaemin not being in love with Jeno. Because they were always attached at the hip, and yet there was not a single feather perched atop Jaemin's back.

"So much drama these days," Donghyuck mused, watching a spiraling leaf of vibrant crimson kiss the ground.

Maybe it was because he presumed Jeno to be Jaemin's wing-bearer, but Donghyuck found himself clinging onto Jeno's company for long stretches of time. He frequently found himself sprawled along Jeno's bed as he waited for Jeno to finish his homework. Wanting to spend the lapses in time and busy schedules with his friend.

Renjun didn't seem to mind, so why did Donghyuck feel guilty? 

It was in little moments, passing instances when Donghyuck felt that he was doing something horribly wrong.

Case in point:

Jeno was doing his homework, as always. Donghyuck was sprawled along his bed and scrolling through his phone. Cool. No big deal.

But sometimes— _sometimes—_ Donghyuck's gaze would...wander.

Shuffling along the bedspread, tilting his head _just_ so, Donghyuck could get a perfect view of Jeno's face. Edges hard and stern with concentration, eyes dark and rapid-moving with the text below him. Lips pursed and jaw taut. Pencil spinning between his fingers, the heel of his foot bouncing restlessly in the air. 

Soft, downy bangs kissing the rims of his long lashes. High, dramatic cheekbones moving in tandem to his clenching-unclenching jaw. Adam's apple bobbing in impatience. Gaze, dark and low, flitting over to Donghyuck for a brief moment—

Donghyuck's phone slipped through his fingers, landing directly onto his face.

With Jeno's quiet, breathless laughter filling the room, Donghyuck realized that he had a problem on his back.

Because Donghyuck was stubborn and never backed out of a challenge (sometimes), he kept up with his Jeno-filled agenda with little regard of the second pair of sprouts snuggled underneath his current ones. 

But he was never good at keeping secrets, so the inevitable did eventually happen.

"You've been acting weird lately."

He and Renjun were in the midst of preening one another's wings, a time-consuming, tedious task made fun when in good company. Donghyuck was currently doing Renjun's wings, handling the navy feathers with delicate hands and immense concentration. It was good practice for when he had to do his own at home.

He was moving on from the first wing to the other when Renjun announced his suspicion. 

"Like, the avoiding-you kind of weird, or the coming-back-from-Jeju weird?" Donghyuck asked.

Renjun released a quiet hum. "Avoiding-me kind of weird," he said after a moment. "Because you are definitely avoiding _something_ right now."

"How observant of you." Donghyuck repositioned a clump of stray feathers. "You should take better care of these things, you know."

"Don't try to change the subject, Hyuck."

Donghyuck hummed and ruffled the feathers he had just fixed. "Don't be mean to me. I have complete control over whether your wings look good or not."

"You do that, and we'll see what'll happen to yours once I get my hands on them."

Donghyuck sighed and fell back on his palms, craning his neck upward to gaze at the cream ceiling of Renjun's home. "Promise me you won't get mad at me when I tell you what's up?"

Renjun crawled toward him, lying flat on his stomach. "I'm not promising you anything if you're gonna keep being a cryptic prick."

"Love you, too, Injoong." Donghyuck heaved a breath, gaze still trained to the ceiling. "I think...Jaemin's in love with Jeno."

"No shit, Sherlock."

"Renjun, please." Donghyuck could see the tips of Renjun's wings rise in mock surrender. "No, but, like, did you see how uncomfortable he was when I was grilling him about who his wings grew for? It was like he was desperately trying to keep it a secret. Almost like he knew for a fact that if his feelings were revealed, he'd instantly get rejected."

Renjun sighed, and Donghyuck felt him drop his head onto his lap. "You intimidated him, Hyuck," he spoke, voice soft and wise. "Of course he was gonna freak. He probably didn't want to tell Jeno yet. Not everyone likes being outed in front of the love of their life."

"Interesting."

Renjun released another sigh and cupped Donghyuck's cheeks, forced him to meet his gaze. "Was that all you wanted to talk about?" Renjun asked, eyes wide and imploring.

Donghyuck allowed himself a moment to feel the gentle caress of Renjun's hands along his cheeks, steady and calm in their hold. Indulged in the image of Renjun's face gazing up at him with the sweetest of looks, soft and patient. So unlike his usual self. All because Donghyuck was hiding a dirty little secret underneath his shirt.

Donghyuck blinked and set his gaze on the bridge of Renjun's nose. "What would you say if I told you..." His anxiety was getting to him, adrenaline running high and closing up his throat, swelling up his tongue.

"If you told me...?" Renjun encouraged.

Donghyuck swallowed down the bile in his throat. "...That I was in love with Jeno?"

He felt Renjun's hands still against his cheeks, a slight tremor running through his entire body. Donghyuck flitted his gaze to Renjun's eyes, expectantly awaiting whatever answer Renjun had in store for him.

Pupils compact, eyes dilated, Renjun looked...shocked.

Which was better than hurt or betrayed, so Donghyuck felt relief flood his chest.

"Is that why..." Renjun started. "Is _that_ why you've been hanging out with him so much?"

Donghyuck felt a pin-prick of heat nip at his ears. "Well, I started doing that because I knew Jaemin had been avoiding him." He shrugged, awkward and unsure. "So I just, dunno, wanted to offer him some company."

Renjun heaved himself from Donghyuck's lap and turned to face him with a scrutinizing stare. "You do realize Jaemin's been avoiding _all_ of us, right?"

Donghyuck startled. "What? Why?"

"Because you tried to out him, genius."

Donghyuck felt indignation swell on his tongue but allowed it to simmer down because there really was no use in denying the obvious.

"It's been, what? A week, right?" Donghyuck asked, waving his hand around flippantly. "Don't you think we should hold an intervention or something?"

Renjun fixed him with an incredulous stare. "Do you think you're in any position to do that, though? Because I'm pretty sure Jaemin wouldn't want any comfort from a guy who's also in love with Jeno."

Donghyuck bristled and felt heat swell within his cheeks. "It's not like he'll know!" 

"Those wings are gonna sprout sooner or later, Hyuck. What are you gonna do then?"

"Well, obviously, I'm not gonna do anything—!" Donghyuck paused and allowed his gaze to linger on Renjun's impassive, borderline tranquil expression. "Hey, wait a minute," Donghyuck said, lips tugging down into a frown. "Are you...not upset about this?" 

Renjun blinked, face filling in with apparent surprise. The _who, me?_ kind of look. "What?" he asked, tilting his head imploringly. "Am I upset because you're in love with Jeno?"

Donghyuck waved his hands around wildly, eventually motioning them toward Renjun. "Yeah?" he squeaked. 

A gentle smile broke out across Renjun's face. "Of course not," he said with a snort. "You can love whoever and as many people as you want." He dragged himself to Donghyuck's side and threw an arm around his shoulders, squeezing his neck for a brief moment as he flexed his bicep. "As long as you still love me, of course. I didn't grow wings for you just for you to ignore me."

Donghyuck released a laugh, a mixture of bewildered and relieved. "What, so you're just chill with poly?"

Renjun scooted himself further back, tucked his legs around Donghyuck's torso as he began preening his wings. "Well, I mean, Jeno and Jaemin are our friends. Our _closest_ friends." Donghyuck felt Renjun's deft fingers curl and shuffle a clump of feathers around. "So I don't really find it surprising that you've fallen for one of them. They're kinda hot, y'know."

Donghyuck sputtered out another startled laugh. "Wow, Renjun. Have _you_ fallen for one of them?"

He felt Renjun's hands pause. 

A beat passed between them.

"...Both," Renjun muttered. 

Donghyuck laughed. "Where are your wings, babe?"

"I haven't had the chance to grow them out. Because _you're_ hogging Jeno and Jaemin's...disassociating."

Donghyuck peered over his shoulder, curious. "Have the sprouts grown out yet?"

Renjun's gaze was steadfast on the task before him, ignoring Donghyuck's imploring gaze. "Just the tips. Not enough to hurt if I just bandage them."

Donghyuck turned forward, humming to himself. "You should let them grow out properly."

"Jeno's moping around in his house when you're not around and Jaemin's M.I.A. outside of school." Donghyuck felt Renjun pull himself away, apparently finished with his work. Felt his arm meld against his, his head lolling onto his shoulder. "What do you suggest I do?"

"We could always kidnap them after school lets out."

"That's stupid."

A beat passed.

"Let's do it."

Renjun ended up finalizing their plan because Donghyuck couldn't get past step one with his: _1\. Kidnap Jaemin and Jeno._

"I'm glad I fell in love with a smart guy," Donghyuck said as he cozied up to Renjun's back.

"Your other choices were a boomer and a coffee-addict, so it really wasn't much of a competition," Renjun retorted.

"Why are you such a bully to the people you love?"

Renjun looked over his shoulder to meet Donghyuck's gaze, a grin spreading across his lips. "Ever heard of a tsundere?"

Donghyuck staggered backward dramatically, groaning in mock dismay. "Not only are you a weeb, but you also became the worst trope in anime!"

Renjun sent him a kiss with his hand. "You picked me first, babe."

After that brief interruption, Renjun went back to formulating his plan:

  1. Approach Jeno during lunch
  2. Invite him over to Donghyuck's after school
  3. Make Donghyuck apologize to Jaemin during Photography
  4. Make Donghyuck invite him over after school
  5. Lock any and all exits beforehand
  6. Family confrontation



Renjun knew it was shoddy, but it was the best he could come up with, and that was all he and Donghyuck could really rely on.

"Alright," Donghyuck said after reading over the list. "Let's go kidnap some boys."

Winter break was rapidly approaching, and Jeno had made zero progress with his Renjun problem. 

Despite Jaemin's support and advice from before, it had little effect on Jeno's attitude toward the whole situation. Especially since Jaemin was avoiding his own wing problems...and his entire friend group. 

Jeno, plopping down at a table to eat his final school meal before the new year, had a pin-prick of heat fall over his back, like someone's gaze was trained on his figure. He whirled around, and his gaze instantly landed on Renjun, who was peeking at him from underneath his wings. 

Upon being noticed, Renjun retracted his wing, hastily approached Jeno and slid into the seat next to his. "Long time no see," he greeted, all smiles and glimmering eyes.

Jeno felt a spike in his back, and he couldn't stop the wince he was sure came across his face. "Yeah," he returned. "What's up? Have something to say to me?"

Renjun, smile turning coy, leaned in close and leveled Jeno with a knowing look. "It's pretty cruel of you to think that your friend can't sit beside you just because." He jolted backward, and Jeno could still feel the heat of his breath on his face. "But, yeah," Renjun continued. "Donghyuck and I were thinking of ways to get Jaemin back to normalcy, and we figured since you two are besties, you could help us come up with a plan."

Jeno frowned and turned away from Renjun to prod at the food on his plate. "And what makes you think that I'll be able to come up with something good?"

Renjun tilted his head, curious and mocking all in one. "It doesn't have to be good, no-jam. The end result just has to be Jaemin hanging out with us again."

Jeno shoveled rice and pork into his mouth, just crammed it in there to silence his thoughts. To allow the faraway static of his mind to take over his words so that he didn't have to think for once. 

Rice grains trapped to the roof of his mouth, chopsticks balancing placidly atop his lips, Jeno finally muttered a reluctant, "Fine."

Jeno didn't miss the overly fond smile Renjun sent his way. Didn't miss the tear of the bandages atop his sprouts.

Photography was a class Jaemin indulged himself with. Whether abstract in their meaning or concrete images of splendor, Jaemin loved the art of photography. Loved the stories created in still images, the beauty of the ageless.

Hence why he submitted their beach photo as his summer project. The beauty within the natural, sun-tanned faces of joy and weariness. The vibrant colors of dusk highlighting their features with glamour. Jeno's sculpted figure exposed and perfectly taut with expective tension. Donghyuck's half-laugh, half-giggle of impatience forever captured in time. Truly a scene worth that ninety-eight percent.

He digressed.

Photography, a class of comfort for Jaemin, was stressing him out. Because Donghyuck had migrated from his usual seat in the back and took residence atop Jaemin's in the front. Jaemin knew Donghyuck was only bold because their teacher had to leave to print out the rubric for their winter project, and he couldn't help but let his feelings of yearning leak out into a weak whimper. 

"Listen," Donghyuck began, blissfully unaware of Jaemin's internal struggle. "I just...I want to apologize. For forcing you into an uncomfortable situation like that." He squirmed his way further onto the desk, his ass adjacent to Jaemin's chest. "I didn't take your feelings into account and put you in a hard place. And I understand if you don't accept my apology because what I did was kinda shitty. But..." His gaze lowered from where it had been wandering along the classroom's wall, meeting Jaemin's with sincerity. "...don't shut out Renjun and Jeno. Please.

"You can ignore me all you want," Donghyuck continued, hastily averting his gaze as a flush seeped into his ears. "I just don't want you isolating yourself because of me."

Jaemin blinked rapidly, mildly stunned. Because Donghyuck wasn't the type of person to naturally put others before himself. Because Donghyuck was trying to make amends. By _himself_.

Jaemin felt a smile spread across his face, and he took that moment of giddy joy to pinch Donghyuck's thigh. Donghyuck yelped and looked at him incredulously. 

"You were wide open," Jaemin sing-sang. 

Donghyuck laughed, flustered. "Okay, I guess I deserved that."

Jaemin leaned forward, hooking his chin over the meat of Donghyuck's thigh and staring up at him with wide, wide eyes. "I accept your apology, by the way," he said.

Donghyuck grinned, pleased. "Cool." His fingers thrummed along the desk's edge, antsy and expectant. "Wanna hang out with Renjun and me?" he eventually blurted.

Jaemin snorted at Donghyuck's uncharacteristically stilted approach but nodded into his thigh all the same. "Sure." He rightened his posture and gave a pointed glance toward the hallway windows. "Might wanna get back to your seat. Teacher's coming."

Donghyuck stumbled to his feet and gave Jaemin a parting pat on the shoulder as he rushed to his seat. 

Try as he might, Jaemin couldn't bite the fond smile off his lips.

"Welcome to my humble abode," Donghyuck greeted with a dramatic flair of his hand. He stepped into his pair of slippers and gave Jaemin a pointed glare. "Try not to steal any more of my snacks," he hissed.

Jaemin laughed, shutting the front door behind himself. "No promises."

Donghyuck proceeded further into his home, dropping his school bag onto the couch as he passed it. "Renjun should be over in a few," he announced over his shoulder, locking the panels of the living room windows. "He got caught up with a New Year's project."

Jaemin emerged from the front entryway, making a beeline for the couch and draping his entire body across it. "Yeah, I heard about that from a few of the dance students. Seems like a pain."

Donghyuck hummed in agreement, slinking down the hallway to lock all of the room's doors. "But just imagine for a sec. Renjun dancing a majestic contemporary dance, fireworks in the background, his wings daunting silhouettes perched atop his back..."

"His boneless body expressing his deepest emotions," Jaemin agreed, voice dreamy and breathless. "Delicate limbs flowing freely with his will, his features contorted with concentration—"

"Because he's always been bad at controlling his facial expressions."

Jaemin laughed, deep and fond. "But his body would deliver his message elegantly and gracefully. His years of training visible in his lithe figure and sharp movements."

Donghyuck sighed whimsically as he joined Jaemin on the couch, wrapping his limbs around Jaemin's boneless body. "Wish I could see him dance," he muttered into Jaemin's neck, a pout forming on his lips. "He never shows me his practice videos or anything. Says that he has 'nothing good to show me.'"

A few moments of mournful silence curled around their intertwined bodies until Donghyuck finally realized the oddity in their discussion.

"Did we both just wax poetry about my boyfriend?"

"Alright," Renjun said as he turned the knob of Donghyuck's front door. "Hyuck should be here already, so get ready for some serious discussion, okay?"

When Jeno nodded his head in confirmation, Renjun pushed the door open and motioned for Jeno to enter first. Jeno complied and slipped into an extra pair of slippers.

Just as Renjun had finished locking the door, Jeno asked, "Why are Jaemin's shoes here?"

Renjun heard Donghyuck hiss a sharp _shit_ from the living room. "Don't worry, Hyuck!" he shouted, pushing at Jeno's back to get him moving forward. "I've locked the door already!"

There was a wild sound of movement from the living room before a resounding _thud_ filled the air. Some more noise of scrambling before footsteps thundered toward the front entryway. Donghyuck's frazzled appearance peered around from the corner, sheepish and eager.

"Surprise," Donghyuck said, hands shaking in a jazzy motion. "It's a family confrontation."

Renjun heard and felt Jeno release a tired sigh. "Well, I guess this was inevitable," he muttered as he moved away from Renjun's pushy palms.

Renjun exchanged a puzzled glance with Donghyuck and eventually fell in step with him as they followed Jeno into the living room.

"We've both been bamboozled, huh?" Jaemin greeted, lifting his torso from where it had been sprawled along the couch.

Jeno shrugged, compliant and nonchalant. "Seems to be a trend between us, huh?" He turned toward Renjun and Donghyuck, who were both hovering near the entryway, mild uncertainty shifting between their limbs. "So?" Jeno said, patient and blunt. "What're we addressing first?"

Renjun glanced toward Donghyuck, seeking out their next move.

When Donghyuck's gaze stayed steadfast on Jaemin's lounging form, Renjun decided to take the initiative with a bracing breath.

"What's been going on with you, Jaemin?"

Jeno turned toward Jaemin expectantly. He'd been curious and anxious about Jaemin's disappearance, so seeing him in such a placid state was...off-putting. Enraging. Because didn't he know? That there were people worried about his well-being and stability? Didn't he _care_?

Jeno knew his anger would only worsen their delicate situation. So he clenched his fist and ignored the burn in his back.

Jaemin had since gone pale in the face. A bad sign, but at least he wasn't getting ready to storm off like before.

"You mean, why did I disappear off the face of the planet for a week?" Jaemin said. "Because I believe that question has an easy answer."

Jaemin's gaze went over Jeno's shoulder, and Jeno didn't have to look to know who was on the receiving side of that stern stare.

"What happened to accepting my apology?" Donghyuck whined.

"I never said I wasn't going to clown you afterward," Jaemin teased, wiggling in his seat giddily.

"That doesn't answer the question," Jeno interrupted. "Not really."

Jaemin flitted his eyes over toward Jeno, narrowed and calculating. "Should I spell it out for you, no-jam?" he asked, coy and mocking.

Jeno snorted incredulously. "Better just show me, since I'm _oblivious_."

Jaemin stood from the couch, gaze still intent on Jeno. Before slowly, surely turning around until his back faced the room's other occupants. He tugged at the hem of his shirt until it was just barely covering the small of his back. 

But even that was enough to have a gasp escaping Jeno.

A wing binder so far down the back could mean only one thing...

"Who's are those for?" Jeno asked, quiet and timid. Ashamed of his earlier outburst.

"Those are Donghyuck's," Jaemin replied, just as quiet. Just as ashamed.

Jeno heard Donghyuck gasp from behind him. " _Mine_?"

Jaemin pulled his shirt further up, exposed a brief lapse of pale, pale skin, before introducing yet another wing binder. "These are Renjun's." He hastily tugged the back of his shirt over his head, denying the moment its proper impact, ignoring Renjun's broken whimper. "And these are...yours, Jeno," he finished, voice but a hushed whisper.

Jeno stared, horrified, at the final wing binder that strained and tugged at the meat of Jaemin's shoulders. That squeezed his ribs so tight Jeno could count them. That suffocated and crushed the fluttering pair of wings underneath them.

No one reacted. No one could. 

Jeno, with mortification paralyzing his limbs and adrenaline deafening his ears, spoke first.

"Take them off."

Jaemin didn't _want_ to take them off.

But Jaemin was...well, you know.

Hopelessly in love.

"Give me a minute," he said, voice trembling in the weighted air.

He dropped his shirt to the floor. With quivering hands, stiff fingers, Jaemin reached under the rim of the first binder and shifted the material from his chest to his palms. Maneuvered it to squeeze against his arms until it threatened to suffocate him as it slipped over his face.

He dropped the first binder to the floor. Stretched his horribly, criminally stiff wings out. Drowned out the dismayed gasps behind him with the steady, hot flow of adrenaline pounding in his head.

The second binder was trickier than the first. If Jaemin shifted it too much in its removal, he posed the threat of tearing free a clump of feathers. So it required care and concentration. Patience.

Jaemin's hands were shaking too hard. The slick material of the binder kept slipping through his fingers, snapping against his skin.

Panic settled in.

"I don't—I can't—" he gasped, shallow and weak.

There was an immediate stampede behind him, and three pairs of hands settled atop his own.

"It's okay, you don't have to—"

"Relax, you're okay—"

"I'm sorry, please don't—"

Jaemin's wild tremor never left his body, but he allowed himself to be cradled and comforted by the loves of his life.

The family confrontation was adjourned. Jeno guided Jaemin home, ushering apologies and words of comfort the entire way out. Renjun stuck around, wordlessly melding his body against Donghyuck's as Donghyuck sat on the couch in mortified silence.

Donghyuck's yard-long stare eventually focused on Renjun's wings, which were wrapped around them as a protective barrier. Donghyuck reached up to one and gently, tentatively caressed the feathers of navy. Renjun mirrored his actions, hands stroking, gliding over the crimson-midnight with a delicate touch.

"I want to kiss them better," Donghyuck admitted, tears welling up in his eyes at the tragic memory of deformed limbs, of blotched feathers. "I want to kiss _him_ better."

Renjun leaned his head against his shoulder, staining the collar of Donghyuck's shirt with his on-going tears. "Me, too."

Christmas was...a holiday. That happened.

Renjun knew that his family knew he wasn't in the jolliest of spirits that year. So they let him be after insisting he joined them for the festive dinner. 

Renjun laid in his bed on Christmas Eve, gazing out his window with a heavy heart.

Renjun woke up on Christmas Day, feeling about as well as he had last night. Though, he couldn't tell if it was because of Jaemin's recent revelation or because his own sprouts were aching in the winter weather.

When his misery finally got to the rest of his family, they kicked him out of the house with the parting words of "go be grumpy somewhere else."

So, Renjun did exactly that.

"Hey, Jeno," Renjun greeted, waving his hand in casual greeting.

Jeno rose a brow, surprise blooming across his sleep-puffed face in slow rolls. "Oh, Renjun," he finally greeted. "What're you doing here?"

"Family kicked me out for being too angsty, and Donghyuck's back in Jeju for the holidays."

Jeno hummed in understanding before stepping out of the doorway and yawning open the door. "Well, if you're staying over, just know that my parents worked the night-shift, and they're still sleeping. So you're gonna have to be quiet."

Renjun gave a mock salute as he stepped into the house. "Roger that."

Slipping on the spare pair of slippers, Renjun listened as Jeno shut the door behind them before turning toward him. "Got anything good—"

Renjun's lips clasped close in wild confusion as he gazed at the large pair of wings perched atop Jeno's back.

"I've got a couple more growing underneath these ones," Jeno said simply. "These are yours, by the way."

Renjun closed and opened his mouth, flabbergasted. Before realizing that any reaction short of logical would be too loud and risk rousing Jeno's parents awake.

"Sorry, yours were the last to grow for me," he said.

"Ouch."

A beat passed.

"Wanna play _Mario Kart_?" Jeno offered.

"Hell yeah."

Christmas was certainly a holiday.

"Oh, shit," Jeno exclaimed.

"Whatzit?" Renjun said, on the verge of passing out after two days of straight gaming.

"Jaemin's mom wants us all over for New Year's."

"Oh, shit."

"Yeah." Jeno gazed at the text for a brief moment, contemplating. "You think Donghyuck could make it if I told him we were going?"

Renjun snorted and tucked himself underneath Jeno's wing. "He would be stubborn enough to fly here himself if his family didn't allow him."

Jeno furled his wing closer to Renjun's body and carded a hand through his, admittedly, greasy hair. "True," he muttered absent-mindedly. "You think Jaemin knows about this?"

"Jaemin's parents wouldn't do anything without his consent."

"True."

A beat passed.

"Why aren't you texting her back?" Renjun whispered into the material of Jeno's shirt.

Jeno stiffened and shifted under Renjun's inquiry. "I don't know if Jaemin _really_ wants to see me, though." He leaned his head against the crown of Renjun's, blinking away the stray strands of matted hair. "I mean, I was the one who insisted he removed his binders. Even though he clearly wasn't ready to show his wings to us."

"Then ask him about it at the fucking party," Renjun bemoaned, curling his limbs around Jeno's body. "Don't puss out just because you feel guilty. Trust me. It's not worth it."

Jeno wrapped an arm around Renjun's waist and squeezed him closer. "I guess I should take advice from an expert, huh?"

Renjun's palm smacked weakly against his stomach. "Shut up and text Jaemin's mom and Donghyuck so that I can sleep in peace."

Jeno took a moment to do just that, receiving replies from Jaemin's mother and Donghyuck, respectively: _Great! I'll let Jaemin know! :)_ ; _fuck i'm not ready for another family confrontation_. Followed quickly by, _alright give me thirty minutes and i'll have my parents packed and ready to leave first thing tomorrow._

Jeno tossed his phone to the other end of his mattress and pulled the comforter over his and Renjun's body. He kissed Renjun's cheek and murmured to the sleeping boy, "Sweet dreams, babe."

New Year's Eve.

Jaemin had been up all night because his mother finally mentioned the fact that Renjun, Jeno, and Donghyuck were coming over for the party.

Well, "party" was a bit of an overstatement. It was more like an eat-talk-and-drink kind of get-together. But it wasn't even a get-together because nobody aside from him, his mother, and his father were the ones celebrating underneath their roof. 

There were the occasional years that either Renjun's or Jeno's family would stop by to celebrate with them. But as time passed, there seemed to be a mutual agreement that spending time with one's own family would be better. Much like how Donghyuck's family had always been strict in their family-only tradition when it came to national celebrations.

So the announcement of all three coming over, so soon after Jaemin's breakdown, was kind of getting to Jaemin.

"Sweetie," his mother began, handing him a few bills, "can you go to the convenience store and get some extra snacks? I know how your boys like to eat..."

Jaemin took the money with a violent flush invading his cheeks. "They're not _my_ boys," he muttered as he made his way outside.

It hadn't snowed that much for the holidays, so the neighborhood was bustling about with last-minute preparations without any weather worries. Jaemin made his way to the nearby store, shuffling through the automatic doors with a shiver-shudder sigh as the heated air inside engulfed him. He grabbed a fistful of the bagged candy he knew they all like, including himself. A few bottles of soda, a couple of coffees for himself because he was going to need a little boost to keep himself up until midnight. 

He was at the counter—he was _right there_ —when the doors opened for one, two, three new customers. All of whom were sporting two pairs of proud wings on their backs.

"Oh," Donghyuck said first, and, oh, God, Jaemin wasn't ready.

"Jaemin," Jeno greeted, stilted and awkward.

"Fancy meeting you here," Renjun coyly said, and, fuck, Jaemin needed his coffee.

"Is this all you'll be needing today, sir?" the cashier questioned.

Jaemin whirled around and rapidly nodded his head. "Yes, that's it." The cashier read off the price of his purchases and began placing them into plastic bags as Jaemin fumbled with his waded bills. 

When the money was placed into the register, when the change was placed into Jaemin's clammy palm, the trio made their move.

"Please, let me carry those for you."

"Here, put my scarf on. You look like you'll freeze out there."

Renjun didn't even need to say anything. He just offered Jaemin a wide, wide grin and a gentle-hearted nudge to his arm, and Jaemin had heat spreading to the tips of his toes.

New Year's Eve.

Jaemin wanted the year to be done already.

Operation Get Jaemin to Love His Wings was a go.

Status: stalled. Until midnight. Or, at least until Jaemin's parents called it a night. Because, based on the countless back-and-forth texts they all used to have on New Year's, Jaemin would always complain about his parents falling asleep before the clock even struck midnight.

11:43 p.m.:

"Alright, kids. Make sure to keep the partying on the down-low. Happy New Year."

"Happy New Year," they all chorused.

They all waited in expectant silence as Jaemin's parents shuffled down the hall to their bedroom. As they gently shut the door behind themselves.

"Alright," Donghyuck said, muting the New Year special stages they had been watching. "Mission: start!" He was instantly shushed by his friends and repeated in a hushed tone, " _Mission: start!_ "

"Okay, I'm starting first," Renjun said, sliding off the couch and crawling on the floor until he sat directly in front of Jaemin. "Jaemin," he started, voice soft and tender. "Jaemin, you are the sweetest person I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, and I think it's truly tragic that you never thought to confide your feelings to us. _Us_. Your closest friends." Renjun wriggled forward, placed a steady palm atop Jaemin's knee. "If you ever, _ever_ feel the need to do something so extreme that it destroys your body, _talk to us_." His hand squeezed around Jaemin's knee. " _Please_. We want to be there for you whenever you're in trouble."

Jaemin felt his joints curl with rapid-growing mortification, a fierce flush sweating above his brow, spreading down to his back. 

"Alright, my turn," Donghyuck said, shoving Renjun out of the way as he knelt between Jaemin's knees. "Jaemin, I know that you said you accepted my apology, but I want you to know that I _promise_ you something like that will never, ever happen again. No matter the situation, no matter the topic, I will wait until you are ready to deal with it." He winked and nudged Jaemin's knee with his shoulder. "I'll wait until you open up your heart to me."

Renjun groaned and dragged Donghyuck away, smothering him against the carpet floor as he draped his weight across his entire back. "It's your turn, Jeno," he said as he held Donghyuck steady.

Jaemin, on the verge of crawling out of his own skin with the amount of blood rushing through his body, from the amount of adrenaline pounding against his skull, stiffly turned toward Jeno. He was adamant about staying on the couch, positioned beside Jaemin with close comfort, thighs melding against one another.

Jeno met his gaze, a wry grin stiff upon his lips. "Remember when you told me about the precautions of damaging your wings with binders?" he started, slow and gradual.

Jaemin waited a moment for him to continue before realizing he was seeking out a verbal confirmation. Before understanding that Jeno wanted his full participation in their little confession time.

Sweat drenched his back. "Yeah," he croaked. "I remember."

Jeno's grin softened, dampened. A slight downward quirk. "Did you follow your own advice, Jaemin?"

Jaemin, rigid with shame, jerkily shook his head. "No," he muttered.

Jeno's eyes turned sad. Wide and imploring. Molten and dark with love, concern, worry, sorrow—emotions so deep and rich Jaemin had to avert his gaze. " _Why_?"

Single-worded questions were hard for Jaemin. Because was he actually supposed to be honest? Did the person just want to hear an easy-fix answer that'll make them feel better about themselves? 

Jaemin's eyes flitted back to Jeno's, and he knew what his answer should be.

"Because I hated them," he admitted. A weight lifted from his chest as his thoughts filtered through the air. "I _hated_ my wings," he continued, livid. "I wanted to rip them out _so_ many times. I wanted to tear out my own flesh and bone. _I_ wanted that. I wanted them gone. Never to be dealt with again. Never to be seen. Never to be _felt_."

Jaemin's heaving breaths filled in the lack of reactions. Fireworks burst in the background. Cheers trickled in from the streets below, from the life surrounding them.

New Year's Day had begun.

Jaemin awoke to tender hands caressing his stiff, stiff wings.

"I saw online that massaging your wings like any normal muscle can actually get rid of cramps," Renjun informed Jaemin, who was still too groggy to get a firm grasp on what was happening.

"You're too rough whenever you do mine," Donghyuck whined, deft fingers kneading the tense points in every nook and crevice of his pair of wings. Because the bottom pair suffered the most due to their inconvenient position.

"Agreed," Jeno said, apparently having finished stimulating his pair of wings back to life, as he was busy preening Jaemin's feathers. "Learn to get a gentle touch like Donghyuck's, and _maybe_ your advice will be valid."

"Wow, we're only eight hours into the new year, and you guys have already started bullying me."

"New decade, old me," Donghyuck quipped with an easy smile.

"God, you guys are nerds," Jaemin moaned as he stretched his arms above his head.

He didn't have to look to know that they were gazing at him affectionately. 

"You chose us, babe," they chorused.

Some may say it started with Donghyuck; others may say Jaemin.

But the four of them lovingly, graciously put all the blame on Mark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry about the rushed/wonky second-half lmao I wrote it all in A Day.  
> anyways, I'm gonna miss this Dream line-up :,) Onward, to the new decade, lads.


	2. Flock Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guilt is such a universal feeling. Especially when there's only one ~~victim~~ culprit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, sorry for the wait! this is just a little epilogue of sorts since I didn't have enough motivation to write a full-blown sequel. enjoy!

Graduation was something that meandered in the backs of their minds. It wasn't that far off, but it was in such a distant time—in an entirely different season—and they had much more pressing matters at hand.

Case in point:

"Oh my god, Jaemin, you've never gone flying before."

Renjun watched as Yoshi veered off Rainbow Road and into the eternal depths of the galaxy below. His eyes flitted toward his right, where Jaemin sat in scrutinizing silence, and eventually trailed over to Donghyuck, who had since tossed his controller over to Jeno in pursuit of Jaemin's attention. Jeno was hard at work making sure Mario didn't fall too far behind, and Renjun slowly turned his attention back toward the screen, boosting Luigi through the map's absurd twists and turns.

"I haven't gotten the chance to," Jaemin said at length. "Something about wearing wing binders eighteen hours a day makes it hard, for whatever reason."

"Yeah, but you could've joined us while we were testing out our extra pairs," Donghyuck rebutted. "It would've been a great bonding experience! Right, Renjun? Jeno?"

"I dunno, Hyuck," Jeno said as Mario flew right off the road. "We're not the best teachers, and I'm sure Jaemin would like to know how to properly use his wings."

"Not to mention we're still shaky with our own wings," Renjun said, pumping his fist in victory as Luigi crossed the finish line. He turned toward Jaemin and Donghyuck with a raised brow. "I doubt we would be able to keep ourselves in the air long enough to maintain our balance."

"Not true," Donghyuck said haughtily. "Unlike you losers, I've been flying around the park by Han River to get my practice on."

"Not all of us have the free time for that, _loser_ ," Renjun mocked.

It wasn't a secret that Renjun had a dance project due at the start of the new semester. He put whatever free time allotted to him to get the best product out of it, delicately practicing each motion and pattering each step to the rhythmic beats.

That being said, the only reason he sat on the couch with his boyfriends, the only goal in his mind to finally win a race on the hardest map of _Mario Kart_ , was because he had hit a road-block in his project. Having to create his own original choreography with a pre-assigned song, one that he would not have made his first choice to boot, was draining. His creativity was sapped up, and every time he heard the opening instrumentals to the song, he had a wild urge to toss his speaker out the window.

So, in short, he was relaxing. Chilling out. Giving his mind a break.

Teaching Jaemin how to fly would be the complete _opposite_ of the aforementioned. 

"Well, it's not like you _have_ to be there, Injoong," Donghyuck said while sticking his tongue out. He wrapped an arm around Jaemin's torso and batted his eyelashes as he gazed into Jaemin's side-profile longingly. "Jeno and I are enough for you, right, Nana?"

Jaemin brought his hand up to dramatically cover his eyes, brow pinched in with mock contemplation. "Oh, what am I to do with all of this attention?" he moaned. 

"I don't think that's what you should be worrying about right now," Jeno said flatly. He placed the controller onto the coffee table and gazed at Jaemin with gentle eyes. "If you _actually_ want to do this—and don't let Donghyuck make that decision for you—then I'll be there to help you out. You know, to make sure Donghyuck doesn't fuck anything up."

"Hey, what the fuck?" 

Renjun smiled at the indignant scowl sprawled along Donghyuck's face, but he felt his lips fall back into a grim line soon after. 

It wasn't to say that Jaemin's ability to fly wasn't an extremely high priority in Renjun's life. But they—Renjun, Jeno, and Donghyuck—really were not the best teachers for any subject under the sun. Jaemin would have an easier time learning by himself if he gave himself enough time and patience to start from zero.

And that was another thing: Jaemin had never flown. Not ever. He'd never tested out what type of wings he had, nor has he figured out what kind of wind conditions they best responded to. They would all be flying blind if they tried to teach him. Which posed a hidden danger because what if? What if Jaemin got hurt because they were making a rash decision for him? Because they weren't able to save him with their own bumbling wings?

Jaemin didn't share Renjun's sentiment, apparently, because he was already nodding his head and gazing at the three of them with molten love, and complete and utter—

"I trust you guys," Jaemin said with a dazzling smile.

Renjun couldn't, though, and that was what furled underneath his tensed shoulders in hard, taut lines: dread.

They were stood outside in a half-circle in the middle of Jeno's lawn. January's bitter winds had ceased for just that moment, a quiet relief for Renjun, who was still pensive about and begrudging with Jaemin flying. Because what if, what if, what if?

"I'll go up first. To check the wind condition," Jeno offered. He was already up in the air before Renjun could call the whole thing off. Renjun stared up at him, watched as the whispy breeze curled Jeno's fringe, as it rippled his loose-fitting tee.

And maybe Renjun felt comforted then. Because if Jeno could look so angelic with the clouds crowning above him and his wings so vast and imposing, then why wouldn't they be safe underneath the watchful eyes of an angel?

Jeno's eyes met Renjun's as he gazed down at their gathered group. A smile bloomed across Jeno's face, and he drew a hand out in offering, directly toward Renjun. "Come on, Injoong," he said. "Let Donghyuck do the babysitting."

Donghyuck released a sound of muted reluctance, almost a whine but not shameless enough for such a title. Renjun ignored Donghyuck's outcry and turned his gaze to Jaemin. He was wary with leaving Jaemin's safety in the hands of Donghyuck since Donghyuck wasn't the most...gentle person in their group. But, when Jaemin merely offered him a soft smile and a parting wave of his hand, Renjun felt the anxiety-ridden tension in his joints loosen. 

Renjun spread his wings, feeling the gentle wisps of wind weave through his feathers, and pushed himself off the ground with a hard flap. He launched into the air, overshooting it just a tad as he found his feet dangling above Jeno's head. He gently descended until Jeno's blinding smile was leveled with his wandering eyes.

"See? Was that so hard?" Jeno asked teasingly.

"Painstakingly," Renjun bemoaned. He laughed at Jeno's unimpressed expression, and he gave Jeno's chest a light-hearted shove. "What about you, Mister Soaring Wings? Feeling the burn from using the wrong muscles yet?"

"Like you have room to talk."

Renjun couldn't deny the discomfort that dug deep into his back, so he merely shrugged in silent surrender.

Jeno rolled his eyes and directed his attention back toward their other companions still frozen on the ground. "What's the hold-up, Donghyuck?" he called. "If you could teach yourself, then it should be easy to teach someone else, right?"

"You can't rush a masterpiece, no-jam!" Donghyuck shouted. Renjun snickered and watched as Donghyuck talked to Jaemin while gesturing wildly about. Donghyuck's hands wandered and brushed along Jaemin's wings, curious and inquisitive, trying to decipher the best course of action. 

Donghyuck's conclusion came soon after, and the wind carried his parting words to Jaemin up to Renjun's ears: "Just imagine you have six pairs of arms on your back!"

"Really?" Renjun said as Donghyuck joined him and Jeno in the air, effortlessly hovering with the ferociously fast beats of his wings. " _That's_ your advice to someone who's never flown?"

Donghyck released a mock gasp of offense, hand coming up to clutch at the chest of his shirt dramatically. "Are you questioning my fool-proof advice?"

"I'm slandering it," Renjun corrected coolly. His eyes wandered back down to where Jaemin stood, wings flapping faintly, awkwardly. "Are you _sure_ you should be up here and not, I don't know, _down there helping Jaemin_?"

Donghyuck held his hands up haltingly, his lips spreading into a cocky grin. "It's _fool-proof_ , Injoong, and we both know Jaemin's not _that_ much of a fool."

"That doesn't mean Jaemin's gonna know how to do something he's never done right off the bat," Jeno said.

"You guys have no faith, huh?"

"It's called having common-sense, Hyuck. Please, do try to learn of it some time."

Renjun was on the verge of congratulating Jeno on his scathing attack, when his eyes caught a movement from below, dark and fast—

Jaemin.

Jaemin was flying.

Right at them.

"Stop the arms! Stop the arms—!"

Renjun was brutally caught off when Jaemin barrelled right into him with open arms. The breath was crushed from his lungs, and shock threatened his balance, but Renjun quickly recovered and recentered his and Jaemin's bodies.

Feathers of midnight obscuring his vision, wind whipping around his ears, Renjun gasped in a sharp breath at Jaemin's positively euphoric expression.

"Hi," Jaemin giggled, his smile stretched so wide Renjun worried his face would split.

"Hi back," Renjun said once his shock had passed. "You know, I don't think you should do that ever again. For your safety and my sanity."

Jaemin's smile quickly turned into a pout, and he slowly peeled himself away with visible reluctance. "You're such a killjoy, Renjun," he whined.

"Go ahead and try it with Dumb and Dumber over there." Renjun pointed a finger toward Jeno and Donghyuck, who had since taken to twirling in the air in a bastardization of tango together.

"Oh! That looks fun!" 

Jaemin turned toward Renjun expectantly, and Renjun instantly knew what Dumbest wanted. "No," he said flatly. "We'd fall flat on our asses before being able to do what they're doing."

"Then you'll just have to switch partners, right?" Jeno said as he and Donghyuck spun toward them. They came to a stop, and Jeno glided toward Renjun, Donghyuck fluttering toward an awe-struck Jaemin. Jeno held his hand out toward Renjun, a gentlemanly smile gracing his lips. "Will you join me for this dance?"

Renjun snorted at the absurdity of the situation but took Jeno's hand regardless. Jeno pulled Renjun in at an arm's-length, turning them in a slow circle as Renjun kept up his weight with the occasional flap of his wings. 

Renjun averted his eyes from Jeno's tender gaze and looked for Jaemin and Donghyuck. Though, he kind of regretted doing so the minute he found them gleefully rolling around and doing somersaults in the air. 

"They're so dumb," Renjun muttered.

"And yet, here you are, madly in love with both of them," Jeno said.

Renjun turned his gaze back toward Jeno and smiled mockingly. "I don't see how. My type's the smart and mysterious one."

"Thank you for the compliment."

"Jeno, don't test me."

They danced in amused silence for the rest of their time together, all coy smiles and daring eyes. When they glided past Donghyuck and Jaemin, Jeno passed him off the Donghyuck without another word.

"Word around the street's that you're a killjoy, Injoong," Donghyuck greeted, fingers intertwining with Renjun's and palms pushing flushed against one another. "Should we make you an honorary no-jam?"

"Is it official if I unironically quote Jeno?" Renjun deadpanned.

"That's a life-sentence, babe."

"Then: No comment."

Donghyuck grinned, and Renjun felt his lips return the mirthful gesture. 

Due to the nature of Donghyuck's wings, they're dance was more sporadic and meticulous than Renjun's and Jeno's. Donghyuck was able to direct his body in any direction he wished, and all Renjun had to do was mimic his movements. But Donghyuck, the absolute shit-head, didn't want to follow a simple, smooth path of flight and, instead, tortured Renjun with obscene highs and lows at neck-breaking speeds.

"You know, just because Jaemin can handle somersaults on his first flight doesn't mean I can deal with your bullshit on our fifteenth," Renjun complained.

"Oh, you're keeping count? I'm honored, babe!" Donghyuck gushed, freeing a hand from Renjun's grasp to pinch Renjun's cheek affectionately.

"I will not hesitate to toss you to the ground."

Donghyuck suddenly released his grip on Renjun's other hand, sending Renjun into Jaemin's awaiting arms. "Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to put a rain check on that promise," he said in parting, immediately cozying up to Jeno.

Renjun rolled his eyes and pulled himself from Jaemin. He looked at Jaemin, noticed that the earlier euphoric expression hadn't left his face, and smiled. "What do you think?" he asked. "Is flying coming easy for you?"

Jaemin nodded and began to spin them in a lazy circle, creating a gentle tempo in their dance, one that Renjun was quick to follow. "Yeah," he said airily. "I thought it would be hard to do since I never worked up their muscles. But, I guess all that massaging and stretching you guys did really paid off."

Renjun returned Jaemin's blissed smile. "I'm glad our hard work wasn't for nothing."

"Yeah," Jaemin agreed, adding with a growing grin, "And Donghyuck's advice helped out, too."

"I hope you didn't say that to his face. That'll make him think he's _actually_ the wing expert in our group."

"I'd never do anything that'll inflate his ego _that_ much."

Renjun laughed, hearty and loud, and listened endearingly as Jaemin prattled on about his wings.

The afternoon bid them farewell during their mid-air dance, and dusk clouded over their stunning background of fires and indigos. Despite their dim surroundings and the fast-fading warmth of the sun, they danced on. Joyfully, gleefully, their laughter and conversations filled in for the hushed life around them, the biting winds carrying their messages of delight.

When Renjun's heart threatened to burst from his chest, when his lungs burned with each gasp of breath, they finally called it quits. They lingered in the air, hovering, gliding near one another with close comfort as their conversations continued. Because how could they leave? The night was still so young, so fresh in its presence that a few more minutes couldn't hurt, right?

"Just one more minute, okay?"

"Wait, one last thing!"

"Oh, I forgot!"

"Did I tell you guys this yet?"

It was stupid. They knew that there was a nice, warm house waiting just below them. But with 24 pairs of wings beating in harmony, however off-beat and irregular they may have been, who would want to be the first one to break off that splendid rhythm?

Answer: nature.

It was a particularly strong gust of wind, rustling feathers, and wobbling steady cores. And then it was a gale of wind and, suddenly, Renjun's entire world slanted, and he's desperately pumping his wings to stay up, up, _up_ —

Renjun felt a small, desperate tug on the thin material of his sleeve. His gaze fell and met Jaemin's as his fingers lost their weak grip, and his wings cocooned around his body before the impact.

It didn't process in Renjun's mind until his feet hit the ground, and, suddenly, Jaemin's despairing whimpers were all he could hear. 

School started back up three days later. Renjun had finished his project and turned in the recorded choreography roughly two minutes before the final deadline. Jeno and Donghyuck congratulated him that morning as they walked through the school entrance's gates, but they all fell silent when they found Jaemin waiting outside for them.

Jaemin hadn't sustained any permanent injuries from the fall, thankfully. But a broken arm and strained and sprained wings were nothing to celebrate. 

Jaemin was released from the hospital yesterday afternoon and was practically drowning in slings—one for his arm and one for each wing. It was a hard sight to see then, and it was even harder that morning because he looked so...small. Under the curious eyes of their schoolmates. In his bundled up clothing and stiff cast.

Nobody blamed him, but god, did Renjun feel guilty.

As though they could read his mind, Jeno and Donghyuck simultaneously clasped Renjun's hands and marched on toward Jaemin. Renjun had no choice but to follow after them lest he fell flat on his face.

"Well, well, well," Donghyuck said once they were within earshot. "I didn't think you would come today."

Jaemin looked up from his phone, and a smile instantly bloomed across his face once he realized who was speaking to him. "Yeah, well, I probably wouldn't be here if I had broken my right arm," he said with a forlorn sigh, wiggling his arm-slung cast listlessly. "I wanted to stay home and just sleep off the pain meds, but my mom said I was 'healthy enough.'"

Renjun felt Jeno release his grip on his hand, and he watched as Jeno strode forward to grab Jaemin's bag and sling it onto his shoulder. "You think you're gonna be okay once their effects wear off?" he asked cautiously. "I'd imagine you'll be feeling sore trying to sit up-right in class."

Jaemin made a dismissive noise in the back of his throat, flapping his left hand as if to ward Jeno's worries away. "I'll be fine, no-jam. And you know I'll just go to the nurse if I start to feel like I'm dying."

"If you say so." Jeno still looked pensive on the matter, but he decidedly dropped it and looked toward Donghyuck and Renjun. He offered them a prompting look, practically beckoning them over to Jaemin's side.

Donghyuck went first after a moment's hesitation. His fingers slipped from Renjun's, and Renjun watched as Donghyuck approached Jaemin in the same jestful manner he always would. But Renjun could tell it was a front. It may not have been obvious to the other two, but Donghyuck's tone was too high-pitched, his eyes too evasive, and his rowdy hands too stilted in their movements.

But Renjun didn't say anything. Because he admired Donghyuck for getting over the guilt that they all shared. Because he yearned for his own courage to make its presence known and allow him to take that first step to approach Jaemin. Because this—what was currently happening, what had already happened—was different than what he had done to Donghyuck; cruel actions meant to direct him in a better direction.

Because he had been the last possible person who could have saved Jaemin.

That realization had sunken into his mind over the last few days of the break. It was such a quiet notion: What if he had reacted quick enough? Would he have been able to grab a hold onto Jaemin and support both of their weight on the slow descent? Or would he have just crumbled under the pressure and collapsed right alongside Jaemin?

He had plenty of time to replay each and every scenario that haunted his mind over the break, and he was soon called back to the present with Jaemin's impatient wave in front of his face.

"Hello? Injoong?" Jaemin said, his voice drawn out and high. "Are you stuck up in space with your alien friends?"

Renjun startled, but he kept his reaction to a minimum and swatted Jaemin's hand away with a huff. He had a scathing retort on his tongue—it was burning a hole through the roof of his mouth, heavy in its tone—but he stopped. Because Jaemin, injured, wounded, fragile Jaemin was looking at him with knowing eyes. Because Jaemin's hand was suddenly intertwining with his own, and, suddenly, Renjun had nothing to say.

Because Jaemin knew him too well, and that mortified him.

People talked, obviously. Who wouldn't? At the end of the last semester, two of their unsuspecting classmates had a single pair of wings bonding them together, and their relationship wasn't exactly kept a secret. Because Donghyuck refused to be subtle and mild in his affection.

Now, however, _four_ of those classmates suddenly had feathers lined down their entire backs, their school uniform practically nonexistent, and one of them had injuries on every single one of his wings. It was basically gossip fodder. Which was—no surprise—the last thing any of the victims wanted on their first day back. Renjun, in particular, because he was subjected to it all his lonesome during his dance class.

The thing about dance studios was that everything echoed. Everything. Slight shuffles of bare feet along the wooden floors; heaving, gasping breaths that fogged up the walls' mirrors; and even hushed whispers hidden behind open palms in the dead silence.

"Wasn't he already dating Donghyuck at the start of school?" a voice hissed, rippling over the meandering crowd in slow waves, eventually reaching Renjun's unsuspecting ears.

Renjun froze at the chatter and searched amongst the white noise for the inconspicuous gossipers. 

The task proved itself easy, for his immediate surrounding classmates had fallen silent and were gazing at him with expectant eyes, gauging his reaction. The voices echoed and curled inside that tiny, tiny studio, furling around Renjun like a tight band of tension, threatening to snap under the pressure.

"You think a fight broke out?" a different voice said, not bothering to lower her volume because she knew. She knew that she had captured the attention of the entire class. Knew that she had Renjun's fragile heart right in the palms of her hands.

"Or maybe they just ganged up on that one guy, since he's the only one banged up."

"You mean Jaemin? Yeah... It makes me wonder how a nice guy like him ended up falling for three people so quickly."

"Didn't you know?" another voice joined because they were multiplying. Oh, god, they were _multiplying_. "The guys in Jaemin's class found out he was wearing wing binders way back in September."

"Really?" another one said, so close to Renjun that he could see the boy turn toward the small crowd that had gathered. "I thought that was just a stupid rumor."

By then, Renjun was reeling with poorly disguised mortification—livid with rage—hidden in his balmy palms, in his cowering gaze. Because he was surrounded by people waiting for him to burst and defend himself—his boyfriends. 

But he couldn't. Because how could he possibly explain? What kind of person would he be if he revealed Jaemin's tragic backstory to a room full of strangers? That would betray the trust that Jaemin had put into every single one of them.

And then, Renjun realized, with a jolting start, that he had already betrayed Jaemin's trust once. Jaemin had trusted them all to protect him, and they failed. Renjun was the last line of defense, and he had fallen under the pressure.

Renjun drew his gaze upward and met the rest of the class's expectant gazes. He felt his jaw clench in indignation when he realized he'd been isolated, in the dead center of a circle of filthy gossipers—of people who had far too much time on their hands.

He met the eyes of the girl who had started it all. He didn't know her name, but he could put a voice to a face when that voice was usually shrill with delight and drunk on power while leading their usual routines.

A leader of dance was a leader with words.

"Hey," Renjun called out, his voice gruff and low with warning. "You shouldn't talk about people like that. Especially behind their backs."

The class had fallen into an uncomfortable silence, the flushes already settled into their skin darkening apologetically.

Renjun didn't have long to revel in his quiet victory; the teacher returned to the studio with a new routine in mind. 

Renjun knew that his classmates wouldn't be able to keep their silence for long. They were eager to get their hands on new information, whether proven or not, and were enthusiastic in their spreading of the word. But all he could do was keep his cool and nip whatever little storms he caught in the bud before they could take root.

"I want the school year to be _done_ ," Donghyuck whined as he collapsed beside Renjun on Jeno's living room couch.

"Same," Renjun murmured, gazing at Jaemin's content figure from the corner of his eye.

"All day today, people kept asking me about my wings," Donghyuck continued with an aggravated flair of his hands. "Like, god, why are they so invested in my love life? They didn't give two shits when it was just Renjun and me. What difference do two more people make?"

"I don't think that's what they're worried about," Jeno said cautiously, eyes settled on Jaemin's arm-slung cast.

The room fell silent as everyone considered Jeno's quiet comment. Renjun felt his jaw clench with withheld rage as he reflected on the afternoon's events; being surrounded by sharp-tongued teenagers was never an ideal situation, especially when you were on the receiving end of their cool judgment.

Everyone startled when Jaemin suddenly stood from the couch. Renjun trailed Jaemin's figure as it slid over to the other side of the coffee table, as Jaemin turned to face them all with a gentle smile.

"I know that I'm causing you guys a lot of trouble right now," Jaemin said, holding his hand up haltingly when Renjun opened his mouth to object. "Don't try to deny it: The entire school was grilling you guys about me. I get that part of it was because of the nature of our relationship, but the gossip all led back to me. My cast. My wings.

"I wanted to apologize for being so selfish," Jaemin continued, face losing its earlier cheer. "Because of my impossible wish to fly with you guys, I ended up hurting not only myself but also all of you. Now you will all have to deal with the nasty rumors that have already taken root, and with no real way to clear up that misunderstanding, you're left to just quietly take the attacks. Defenselessly, with only each other to lean on.

"I want you to not only accept my apology, but I also wish that all of you forgave yourselves. It was no one's fault but mine for putting myself in such a dangerous situation, and I don't want any of you to fool yourselves into believing that any decision other than mine led up to that accident."

Jaemin's smile returned once again, affection bright and molten in his gaze. "Let's get through this year with a smile, okay?"

There was a momentary hesitation in their approach, but Donghyuck and Jeno shared one look with one another before standing to meet Jaemin's half-embrace.

Renjun didn't join them. How could he? Forgiveness had been a bitter foe for Renjun during Winter Break, and he was just supposed to embrace it with welcoming arms? He was expected to forget the desperation in Jaemin's eyes as his fingers lost their grip on his only savior? He—he—

He couldn't.

Renjun could not—would not—forgive himself. 

"Injoong?" Jaemin called curiously, eyes deep with wisdom beyond his years, and Renjun knew that he had already been figured out. The arm that stretched around Donghyuck's body, the hand that slid up Jeno's arm, the fingers that curled around Renjun's wrist had already mapped out the stifling regret hidden within all of them.

"'A smile,' huh?" 

Renjun turned toward Donghyuck, curious about his sudden musing.

Donghyuck met his gaze slowly, deliberately. "How are you faring on that demand?"

A month had already passed since their first day back, and their classmates' rumor mill had begun to sputter to a halt. After one too many reports by "anonymous" students, the teachers had started to crack down on the thinly-veiled attacks that were often whispered in the halls, passed around on inconspicuous notes in the middle of class. 

But that didn't deter some students. Oh, no. Instead, that made them all the more vicious with their stories, with their scathing remarks boldly proclaimed in isolated settings. When the class was rowdy, when the teachers were slow in the arrival to the classroom, was when they liked to play with fire and taunt Donghyuck and Renjun.

Dance class went from bad to worse. Because Renjun had earned the rare praise of their teacher for his choreography, for his tragic take on such a mellow song, he now had a target on his back. Bleeding between his cupped fingers, bleach-starched shirt dripping in it, fear drenched him every time he stepped into the dance studio. Because what else could they possibly do? How could they make his life any more miserable?

His wings were made of lead: dense in their weight and melting under the fire.

Renjun averted his gaze from Donghyuck's. "How much closer is graduation?"

"Don't tell me my stubbornness rubbed off on you, Injoong."

"And you? Do you honestly believe you can smile after all of this blows over?"

Silence met his answer, and Renjun closed his eyes in quiet resolution, assured of Donghyuck's unspoken sympathy.

But Donghyuck managed to throw him for a loop, and Renjun started at the fingers that gently grazed his wings—Jaemin's pair.

"You don't hate them, right?" Donghyuck muttered quietly.

Renjun's breath stuttered at the muted accusation, heart stopping when Donghyuck's knuckles brushed through his pair tenderly. 

"I could never," Renjun managed.

"Then, smile, Injoong. Not for Jaemin, not for me, not for those assholes at school—for you." Donghyuck's fingertips trailed down the ridges of Renjun's spine, meeting the bridge of Jeno's pair placidly. "Don't be an idiot like me and let regret consume you. Let bygones be bygones, and embrace the here and now."

Donghyuck's palm laid flat on the small of Renjun's back, heat imprinted on that slim exposure of skin, burning Renjun up from the inside.

"Come back to us, Renjun."

Salt stung the back of Renjun's throat, bitterness welling up in his eyes. "What does an idiot like you suggest I do?" he croaked.

"Well, if you're asking _me_ for advice, then you're gonna have to dumb yourself down a little."

Renjun's eyes finally rose to meet Donghyuck's, and he could see the earnest determination that gleamed in their hold.

Renjun felt a smile spread across his lips despite himself. "It wouldn't be the first time, Hyuck."

The following day, a blessed Sunday, found Renjun, Jeno, and Donghyuck gathered together in Jeno's living room. Jaemin wasn't there because he had to take supplementary lessons to make up for the few classes he had to miss due to his pain meds wearing off mid-class.

"Why is it that whenever we have a family confrontation, we end up at my house?" Jeno said with mock exhaustion. 

"No, this is more like a startling revelation station," Donghyuck said. "The only interventions we had were at Jaemin's and mine's."

"I'm feeling a little left out," Renjun said.

"Yeah, well, your parents actually care about what happens underneath their roof, so that's a no-go." Donghyuck crossed his arms across his chest and stared Renjun and Jeno down, who sat at the couch placidly. "Moving on to today's startling revelation: Renjun has confided in me that he doesn't know how to follow through with Jaemin's wish."

Renjun could feel Jeno's stare burn into his side-profile. "Don't look at me like that, no-jam. We all know that it's an impossible task right now; people at school are shitty, and we still aren't completely over our own guilt with Jaemin." Renjun met Donghyuck's complacent gaze. "And I'm guessing you have a cure-all for our problems?"

A blinding grin split Donghyuck's face as he slammed down a piece of paper onto the coffee table. Renjun leaned forward to read the head title already scribbled onto it, and he felt the minuscule amount of hope inside himself dose itself.

"A bucket list?" Renjun said incredulously. "Donghyuck, this isn't—"

"Going to work? Trust me, it's not supposed to," Donghyuck tutted. "It's not the cure-all you were looking for, Injoong, but it _does_ give us something to look forward to, right? Since we're all lamenting on the past and suffering through the present, why not make goals for the future? Something that we can work up to, something that can give us hope for a distant time."

Renjun fell silent upon Donghyuck's explanation, brain ceasing to process the implications of a time beyond the here and now—something that Donghyuck had been desperate to make him see just the other day.

"And what are these goals supposed to be?" Jeno said in the face of silence.

"Whatever your emo, little mind can think of, no-jam," Donghyuck said as he kneeled in front of the coffee table, pen in hand and finger itching to write.

"What happened to the here and now, Donghyuck?" Renjun mocked because the situation was laughable. Ridiculous, even.

Donghyuck finished scribbling down his goal in all it's obnoxious blue glory. "Thinking of the future doesn't mean abandoning the present, Injoong." His gaze met Renjun's, and Renjun saw that earnest determination fiercely greet his skepticism once again. "Just don't let it be the only thing that grounds you. At least, not forever."

Silence hushed their little group once again. 

Until Jeno leaned forward, arm outstretched and fingers splayed, to slide the paper toward himself. His hand beckoned Donghyuck's over, and Donghyuck offered up his pen with an eager grin.

Donghyuck's goal must have been something ridiculous because Jeno's grim expression instantly broke out into fond disbelief. "This doesn't seem like a long-term goal, Hyuckie," he said with a laugh, hand scrawling out his own goal in that obnoxious blue.

"Gotta keep it simple, babe," Donghyuck said with puckered lips.

Renjun felt his brows pinch in on themselves at the hidden message that laid right in front of him, inked down on something as powerless as a sheet of paper.

"Try to top these, Renjun," Jeno said with mock superiority as he pushed the sheet over to Renjun.

Renjun trapped the paper between his palm and the glass of the coffee table, eyes glossing over the goals of his beloveds.

**BUCKET LIST **

** Donghyuck's: Be everyone's first(!!!!) kiss!!!!  **

** Jeno's: get into acting school  **

"I don't feel like you're taking your own idea seriously, Donghyuck," Renjun said as he glanced up at Donghyuck, unimpressed.

Donghyuck gasped dramatically and placed his hand onto his chest with an air of offense. "How _dare_ you insinuate that I didn't put my heart and soul into coming up with that goal!"

"Well, it's kind of stupid compared to Jeno's."

Donghyuck pouted and quickly rounded the corner of the coffee table to cozy up to Renjun's side. He batted his eyelashes coyly when Renjun met his gaze. "You really think sharing a kiss with me would be stupid, Injoong?"

Heat gathered at the back of Renjun's neck, and he quickly averted his gaze from Donghyuck's. "Sharing anything with you would be stupid, Hyuck, and I don't feel like being contaminated."

Donghyuck whined, and Renjun could feel him lean forward to gain Jeno's attention. "You don't think having your first kiss with me would be stupid, right, no-jam?"

Renjun laughed when he saw the heat rise steadily to Jeno's ears. "Well, I wouldn't call it stupid..."

Donghyuck, apparently satisfied with the answer, instantly jumped over Renjun to pounce onto Jeno. 

Free from Donghyuck's clutches, tuning out Jeno's shrill and desperate shouting, Renjun picked up the pen and tattooed the paper with his obnoxious, blue goal.

The next month found Jaemin without his slings and his arm in, instead of a cast, a brace. It was a sign of improvement, and the nasty little fibbers and schemers no longer had any fodder to fuel the fire. Meaning Renjun was left in peace, whether with company or alone in that tiny, tiny dance studio.

The harassment stopped. The rumors dried up. School, in its final act of mercy, was back to what it used to be: peacefully boring.

"Should we spice things up, then?" Donghyuck said with a grin when Renjun bemoaned this to him during their study hall.

Renjun, eyes trained to the mathematic equations printed in his textbook, hummed absentmindedly. "As long as you're not hurting anyone..." he murmured into the palm pressed against his cheek. Renjun's reply was met with silence, and he figured Donghyuck was just trying to gain his full attention, so he stayed resolute in his determination to finish the assigned questions.

Renjun's concentration was quickly broken when Donghyuck scooted his desk so close to his that the edges rattled against one another. He sent Donghyuck a side-eyed glare, in which he was rewarded with a sly grin.

"I'm gonna need your full cooperation for this, Injoong," Donghyuck said, fingertips sliding into Renjun's field of vision.

Renjun hummed noncommittally, writing out the work that scrambled to sort itself inside his mind.

"Hey."

"Divide three from both sides..." Renjun mumbled when his brain ceased to do the work quietly.

"Renjun-ah."

"Round to the nearest hundredth..."

"Renjun, you've got something on your sleeve."

Renjun startled and turned toward Donghyuck, eyes trained on the pristine, white sleeve of his uniform. A "where" threatened to part his lips, and Renjun was glad Donghyuck had enough sense to press his own against them before the embarrassment of too-much-teeth ruined their first kiss.

Donghyuck pulled away with a much too satisfied grin, and Renjun couldn't really fault him for it because his face was positively _blazing_.

"How was _that_ for spice?" Donghyuck gloated.

Renjun turned back toward his workbook, heat melting away any sense of focus from his mind. With a mutter, he admitted, "Pretty nice..."

Donghyuck cackled, and the teacher called him out to the hall for disciplinary punishment.

"Are you telling me we _all_ got surprised-kissed by Donghyuck? In _one_ day?"

"He's nothing if determined," Jaemin said with a laugh as Jeno's face continued to look no less shocked.

"Damn, I guess he's the first to meet his goal, then," Renjun said.

"What goal?" Jaemin implored.

"We made a bucket list to help get us through the year," Jeno explained.

Jaemin blinked. "And I wasn't involved because...?"

"It was supposed to be a secret, I guess," Renjun said. "Donghyuck suggested it because I didn't think I would be able to smile for you, Nana. So we all made goals we could look forward to to help make it through the year."

Jaemin considered his explanation with an eerily blank face, and Renjun felt sweat gather in his palms as the spring warmth made itself known.

"Well," Jaemin began, meeting Jeno's and Renjun's wary eyes, "has it helped?"

Renjun stalled in his answer, not expecting Jaemin to be so calm about the situation.

Jeno spoke up first, voice warm and tender: "Yes." His eyes curled into winking smiles, and Renjun melted a little at the rare sight.

Jaemin grew a satisfied grin, and it maintained its tenderness as his eyes landed on Renjun's stilted figure. "Have you found your smile, Injoong?" he asked, soft and delicate.

And then, suddenly, Renjun found himself so very far away from the here and now. He was stranded in the intangible future that laid just a week away from his uncertain grasp; diploma in hand, friends and family at his side, and, suddenly, graduation was a very much tangible future. A tomorrow that he would be able to face without that lingering feeling of guilt and despair. A day that he could proudly, confidently—

Renjun's cheeks ached, and he could see the fondness reflect back at him with pearl white teeth.

Renjun cast off his uniform jacket the moment the ceremony finished as he chased after Donghyuck, who had gotten a head start on him since he was the closest to the classroom doors.

The afternoon sky, ablaze with fire and wind, blinded Renjun momentarily. He gathered his bearings and stretched his wings wide, tips touching Jeno's, who stood at his side with an achingly fond smile. Jaemin joined them, fingers intertwining with Renjun's, and his fully healed, fully developed wings imposed their might with a stark cast of shadow.

"Ready?" Donghyuck called from the other side of Jeno.

"Ready!" they replied.

Donghyuck started the chain: his wings batted once, twice—and then they became a blur, lifting him off the ground and dragging Jeno's arm with him; Jeno flapped his wings with a stumbled jump, nearly swatting Renjun in the face; Renjun was quick to follow, though he was cautious enough to be delicate with his flight, eyes trailing down to Jaemin.

Renjun felt his face mirroring the ear-to-ear grin Jaemin sported.

The breeze caressed them in greeting, apologetic in its tender touch as they gathered together. Fingers interwoven, wings embracing the fair wind, they slowly, slowly danced with the shifting clouds as the sun encased them in its honey glow.

"I love you," Jaemin whispered, and the wind carried his devotion to the heavens.

**BUCKET LIST **

** Donghyuck's: ~~Be everyone's first(!!!!) kiss!!!!~~ FINISHED IN TWO HOURS NO REGRETS (jaemin's the best kisser)  **

** Jeno's: ~~get into acting school~~ finished in 4 years  **

** Renjun's: Stay in contact with everyone, no matter the distance. Ongoing.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> final clarification on everyone's wings:  
> Renjun's - Diamond Dove's  
> Jeno's - Common Black Hawk's  
> Jaemin's - Common Raven's  
> Donghyuck's - Violetears Hummingbird's  
> (bonus: Mark's - Seagull's lol)  
> idk what's happening with this unit, but i pray the graduating members won't be put back into the basement 😔  
> edit: I can't believe it, you mad lads finally beat SM into submission


End file.
